


In the Depths of Wagstaff’s Factory

by WarLepidoptera



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, All the Don't starve character will be included in some way, Also capitalism bad, Come on we're talking about Walani here, Creepy stuff, F/F, Kinda its own alternate universe, Not historical at all, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recreational Drug Use, Slow Burn, Sorry this is going to be a weird story because I have no self control, Unhealthy working conditions, Walani and Winona are perfect together, lots of flirting, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2020-05-13 11:16:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19250095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarLepidoptera/pseuds/WarLepidoptera
Summary: After some hardships in life from working in the mines, Winona finds herself deeply satisfied with her new job as a worker in the town’s only profitable factory: the uncanny, but technologically advanced for its time, Wagstaff’s factory.However, the day when Walani, a new assistant, gets assigned to her, things began to get way… messier. In more ways than one.Indeed, several challenges await the two women, some about themselves and the profound bond establishing between them, but others from the factory’s oppressive rule and the dark, dark, secrets, lurking in the shadows.





	1. Fate

Wagstaff’s factory was a gigantic building. Nobody really knew what its primary function was. Its owner didn’t particularly seem to have any real focus: it made lamps, watches, toasters, cogs, pipes, tools, chairs, books, compasses, radios. But also, cars, refrigerators, guns, gunpowder, phonographs, electric wires, typewriters and a lot of other things, some that even didn’t have a name yet.

All this to say that no one really knew exactly what was really going on inside Wagstaff’s factory. It was an extremely confusing place. With offices and workshops put in places that made absolutely no sense, with people constantly getting lost all the time, with equipment that vanished until someone found it in an abandoned unit that no one even knew existed.

Sometimes, during the evening, explosions could be heard and no one knew where it was coming from. To be honest, no one really fancied the idea to go near it anyway.

At some point there were rumors that a monster roamed the place, making its nest in the intricate and chaotic plumbing system of the building, until they found a giant beaver in the metallurgy unit. No one knew how it got there. No one even asked.

That was just how things were in Wagstaff’s factory.

 

And Winona absolutely loved the place.

 

More precisely, she loved working there. She loved the smells, the hard work and the fact that she had her own space to herself. Sure, the politics and supervision were a little strange sometimes, but working in the factory was a paradise for her especially when she remembered her time in the mines. Ha! The mines. They weren’t that bad actually! The coughing was maybe not the funniest part. And the danger of poisonous gases. And the dark. And the explosion that killed twenty men and women one day. But it wasn’t so bad really!

It was work. And work was everything now. And she worked hard, and found after this beautiful job at the factory as a mechanic, so everything was absolutely great.

Well, she was called a mechanic, but Winona did a lot of things. Of course, fixing and maintaining were some of them, but she also helped other units with their problems. She fixed problems. That was a nice way to put it. The factory also gave her a lot of little jobs to do in her workshop, so she always had something to do. Each day was different and fascinating with new challenges and new projects to conquer.

It was, for all those reasons, why Winona walked with enthusiasm on the broad grey and dirty street of the worker’s district towards the factory. It was the first day of the week. The day she liked the most.

However, this day, among all the days where she walked in this exact same old street at this same hour, with the same energy, for some reason, Winona realized something.

 

 

She had forgotten her lunch.

 

It was extremely unusual for her to forget something as important as the most essential meal of the day and she thought for a moment to just run to get it with the only consequence that she would only be a little sweatier at work that day, but as she recalled the pitiful two pieces of bread with one slice of cheese that awaited her on her kitchen counter she took it more as an opportunity to buy a nicer sandwich for a change.

She continued walking. After one street, she spotted a crappy looking café at some corner. The door looked broken and the green paint was worn out. It was obvious that it had seen better times. But it didn’t particularly bother the young woman. Everything looked like that here. Winona went in almost immediately.

It was weird for Winona. Going inside a place to buy a sandwich. It was something she never did. Waste of time. And precious money. But this time, it felt like fate. Because she had forgotten the lunch that she had never forgotten before and she went to this particular café that she had never even noticed before. It was somehow special. For some reason, it was stupid, but she had great expectations.

 

Great expectations that were never met.

 

The inside was as disappointing as the exterior. That was fine. It wasn’t important. But the first thing she saw as she entered the café was the female employee at the counter.

She had darker skin, black hair tied with red ribbons in buns in each side of her head and way more importantly, she had her two feet on the counter, leaning her back on the wall with her eyes closed and a smug little smile on her face.

Winona immediately got slightly irritated at the sight of the detached looking employee. This was definitely not the sight of a hard-working worker. Winona considered herself a friendly person in general, but she always had some troubles with people who didn’t try their best. But, Winona was in a coffee shop, not the factory, so she just waited patiently behind the other customer that was already in the shop before her.

Indeed, a small and thin man that had a lot of soot on his face and clothes was looking at the muffins with a sad look as he counted his money in his hand. He did that for some time, as if he couldn’t convince himself not to buy it.

The female employee decided to do something at some point because she opened her eye and observed the customer some instants before taking off her feet from the counter and stood up, not before yawning loudly. She peeked after above the counter toward the man with a smile and said:

“ Hey, just take it dude, ” Her voice was the same, as you would have expected from her. Soft. Insolent.

The eyes of the young man lighted up with joy. He took the muffin as he was taking something really delicate and precious.

The other woman put a finger on her lips and winked at him to seal the secret and the man never said a word as he exited the shop blowing a kiss toward her.

Winona just stood there while the man left the café, uncertain about how to react. Oh, yes the sandwich. Take it and leave before she gets late. She stepped forward.

The employee was looking at her. She smiled again and asked Winona with a relaxed voice:

“ Heyyy. You’re new. Wanna sit with a nice coffee? ”

The employee had intense eyes. Somehow, Winona felt as they were mocking her.

“ No. I’m fine. I’m just going to take a sand— ”

“ Woah! You look stressed dude! ” cut the other woman. “You sure you don’t want that coffee?”

Winona crossed her arms.

“ No thank you. I don’t want the coffee.”

“ Well, that’s a shame because it’s really good. And it smells amazing, ” responded the employee after another yawn. “Being awake at this hour shouldn’t even be legal. ”

Winona was beginning to really feel like she was losing her time, and it was a really unpleasant feeling. She entertained the idea to just grab the sandwich, slam the money on the counter and leave.

“ Yeah, Yeah. Sure. Listen. Just give me the sandwich. I really need to go to work. ”

“ But work is sooo annoying. You could talk to me instead, ” she said maliciously.

Winona glared at her.

 

“ Ok! Ok! Sandwich it is. ” The employee looked a little disappointed as she picked it up. She turned to Winona again. “ You won’t get mad if I don’t give you a free muffin, right?” she said playfully, but probably also a little too loudly.

A big voice suddenly escaped from the wall behind the counter.

“ WALANI DID YOU GIVE A FREE MUFFIN AGAIN? ” yelled a very loud voice.

“ Oh shit, ” whispered Walani to herself.

An angry man came really angrily in the shop.

“ THIS IS IT, WALANI. THIS IS THE LAST TIME THAT YOU STEAL SOMETHING FROM ME.”

Walani raised her hands and dropped Winona’s poor sandwich at the same time. It rolled at Winona’s feet.

“ Wait! I didn’t even give anything I swear!”

“ LIAR! I’M SURE YOU DID.”

“ Nu-huh! You can ask this really honest-looking person right there! She will tell you that I didn’t! ” said Walani pointing to Winona.

Was she really asking a total stranger to _lie_ for her? And her sandwich! Like come’ on!

“ Actually, she did, ” said Winona, looking at Walani with a defiant look.

“ DUDE! ” Walani looked at her as if she just witnessed the worst betrayal.

“ I KNEW IT. WALANI, YOUR LIES WON’T SAVE YOU THIS TIME.”

“I just gave a muffin to a guy that didn’t have enough money to eat! I shouldn’t be punished for something like this! You’re seriously going to cut my salary again?!”

Winona picked her lunch from the ground and hurried to put the money on the counter. It was really an uncomfortable situation to be in. It was time to leave. The shouts resonated in her ears.

“ HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO TELL YOU THIS WALANI? THIS IS A BUSINESS. YOU DON’T JUST GIVE STUFF FOR FREE! HOW DO YOU WANT ME TO PAY FOR MY FOOD THEN?”

“ Okay. Okay. _Geez_. I got it. I won’t do it again.”

“ NO. THIS TIME IT’S REALLY IT. YOU ARE FIRED YOUNG WOMAN!”

“ Wait… WHAT? YOU’RE SHITTING ME?”

Shit. Winona began to walk rapidly toward the exit.

“ DO YOU REALIZE, continued Walani, HOW FUCKING HARD IT IS TO FIND A JOB IN THIS CITY?!? ”

“LANGUAGE. YOUNG WOMAN. I’M NOT ALLOWING YOU TO SPEAK TO ME THIS WAY”

“YOU JUST FUCKING _FIRED_ ME ANYWAY! ”

Winona heard the other man respond loudly again but she had finally passed the door. Only hearing their muffled voices from the outside.

Still a little shocked, she stared at the empty grey street.

She felt a little bad. It felt like it was kinda her fault.

Well, not really her fault. This was what happened when you broke the rules. You got fired. Walani broke the rules and lost her job. That wasn’t Winona’s fault. Without Winona’s intervention, she would have been fired at some point anyway. She was obviously a bad employee. Bad employees get fired.

Why did she even felt bad? That was dumb.

Despite all her efforts, Winona couldn’t stop feeling strangely preoccupied as she continued walking in the street.

Lost in her thoughts, she almost missed her destination. She abruptly stopped in front of the huge metal door.

“ Entrance number 63 ” was engraved on a dark metal sheet. The door was a little rusty, but strong. She gave two solid knock and waited patiently.

Almost immediately, the door began opening with a long squeaking.

“ Welcome Miss Winona. As early as usual, I see,” said an older woman with grey hair put in a tight bun as she let her in.

She was wearing a grey skirt with grey tights and a grey cardigan. The factory’s uniform for the administrative staff.

“ Good Morning to you too, Mrs. Wickerbottom. “

The old woman raised her glasses.

“You look troubled, my dear.”

It wasn’t a question. Winona sighed.

“ I may of have caused someone to lose their job this morning, ” she responded dryly as she marked her name and the time on the sheet on the front desk after glancing to the giant clock on the wall.

“ … That’s definitely really unfortunate. How did it happen? ” said Mrs. Wickerbottom as she closed the door that made satisfying “ CLONK ”.

“ Well, she gave a muffin for free to some guy and her boss wasn’t really happy about it. ”

“Hmm. But that’s not really your fault. Isn’t it?”

Winona opened her locker, which contained her uniform. She took it and put her new sandwich in it. The sandwich. She stopped her movement to look at it. She didn’t really have the time to look at what she was buying.

It was a little dirty, of course, but it was still a gorgeous sandwich. Nothing extremely fancy or anything, but she could tell that it has been made with care. The lettuce was lush and it had copious amount of ham and cheese. The buns had been slightly toasted with just the right amount of toastiness. It was obviously made with someone with great taste in sandwiches.

“I kinda feel like I did something wrong, ” Said Winona as she contemplated her lunch. ”She wasn’t mean or anything… She just looked like she wanted to do anything else than working. I got really annoyed somehow. ”

Winona remembered she insolent smile on the employee’s face and her laziness at her job. Oh she got annoyed all right.

Mrs. Wickerbottom looked at her in silence.

“ Maybe it is time that you take one day off, ” she said finally. ” As I said many times before, I can arrang— “

Winona jumped and lifted her chin.

“ Wait! No! ” she said with a firm voice.

Mrs. Wickerbottom looked at her severely.

“It’s only a day off, my child. It won’t hurt— ”

“I don’t want a day off. Thank you.”

This time, it was Mrs. Wickerbottom’s turn to sigh.

“ Usually people beg me to give it to them... ”

“ So give it to them! I don’t want it.”

“ Why? ”

“ I don’t need it! I got this. And I love my job! ” Winona gave Mrs. Wickerbottom a radiant smile. “ See? All fine! ”

Mrs. Wickerbottom looked at her again, with obvious concern in her eyes. Suddenly, it seemed as if she decided something because she looked from right to left rapidly like if she was scared that someone might see or hear them and bent closer to Winona as she whispered in a very serious tone:

“ Miss Winona, please listen carefully to me. What I am going to tell you may sound a little delirious to you, but this place… This place isn’t as good as you may think, ” She took a deep breath before continuing. “ As a respected member of the administrative staff, I something see things that struck as a little… odd. And not the usual corruption ‘odd’. Something more. Something more dangerous. And I have no real proof or explanation to give you, but, please, be careful. Especially with overtime.”

Winona looked at her, surprised.

“ Also I worry about your health, dear child, I think you could learn one thing or two from the employee you met this morning. ”

“ What? — Her?! ” stuttered Winona. “ Ha! Impossible. ”

“ I’m serious. And also about being careful Miss Winona.”

“ What are you exactly t— ”

Two loud knocks on the metal door interrupted her.

Winona jumped and looked at the clock. And remembered what she was supposed to do.

“ Shit! I really need to go.”

“ See you next time, my dear, ” said Wickerbottom with a tender smile.

 

***

Life went normally after that. Two weeks passed. Winona never heard of the employee again, and honestly, it was better like that. She had too much to do anyway.

That day, she had time to sit in the canteen for lunch. It wasn’t the best place to sit. The benches were grey and cold and the place was way too overcrowded. But the chat with her good friends Wolfgang and Woodie was always worth it.

Wolfgang did a multitude of really crucial and dangerous tasks in the factory. Someone stuck under some misplaced machinery? Call Wolfgang. Need some strong arms to lift some heavy boxes? Wolfgang would run help to help them. Need to smash a car? Wolfgang would come and even makes it look easy.

The man was strong and Winona totally respected that. He was the only man she knew that she had never beaten in an arm wrestling competition. And she loved those. Woodie, on the other hand, was more the quiet and down-to-earth kind. He worked in the joiner and carpentry branch of the factory and was really good at his job.

Winona really appreciated their company and today’s discussion was really entertaining because Wolfgang was telling them the story of how he caught the famous beaver that had ravaged Woodie’s workplace.

“ Wolfgang scared! Was dark and beaver was making spooky noises! ”

Winona chuckled. The giant man was capable of destroying anything that stood in his way, but couldn’t walk in dim corridors without being terrified.

“ What did ya even do with the beaver after anyway? ” asked the woman.

“ Wolfgang put it in room and when came back with help, had disappeared. Not Wolfgang fault!”

“ HAHA. You probably didn’t lock it well! ”

“ Wolfgang sure he did!”

“In any case, ” responded Winona, “ Woodie you definitely were really unlucky to be sick that day, it was something! ”

“Yea, ” responded Woodie, which had been mostly silent until now.

A bell rang. The screeching sound buried all the voices in the cafeteria.

“ Already?” Wolfgang looked sad. “Wolfgang feels like only started!”

“It feels shorter and shorter each time, ” said Woodie. “ Lucy told me she noticed that too. ”

Winona stood up.

“ Well, gotta go. The bell’s the bell.”

“ Winona should go come drink beer with us after work! ” said Wolfgang with a lot of hope in his eyes.

Winona hesitated. She was usually too tired to do anything else than sleep after work to be honest.

“ Well, I would like to at some point, but I have way too much stuff to do. ”

The pile of work was getting bigger and bigger. Her workshop was overflowed. She really needed to get back to work.

Woodie looked at her with surprise.

“ Aren’t you getting a new assistant today? ”

Winona took some time to process the information.

“ Wait… WHAT? How— ” she yelled.

“Didn’t you see the note? ”

“ … No? ” she hit her forehead. “ Shit! Was it that paper? I thought it was a receipt! They’re probably waiting for me! ”

“ Go fast!” yelled Wolfgang as she began running.

And, as she got through the labyrinth of grey corridors, Winona’s mind began to race. Why did they give her an assistant? She didn’t even ask for one! Did they feel like she wasn’t working hard enough? Winona’s heart began to beat a little quicker.

She was panting when she reached the front desk.

She saw the big clock again and the grey desk.

A figure was seated on a chair on the side. Winona stopped moving.

She knew that person.

 

 

 

“ You must be fucking joking, ” said Walani.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Sorry if the grammar is a little wonky, english is not my first language so a lot of this is somewhat new to me! 
> 
> I hope some of you will like this weird story. If not, well that's fine. I mostly wanted to see a Winona/Walani fic so I made my own.
> 
> Like come on, is there a more romantic way to meet the love of your life than making them lose their job? Yeah exactly.


	2. You Need To Destroy It To Make It Better, Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winona and Walani have some stuff to settle with each other

At first glance, someone could say that the place looked like a mess but if they took the time to really look at it, it would quickly appear as a really meticulous and organized mess. With time, Winona’s workshop had begun to feel more and more like her home. She had spent so much time in it, that she knew by heart the exact emplacement of each exact tool, metal or wood scrap, blueprint, machinery and even dust ball. She also recognized each hole and stain on the walls and the ceiling. When something was missing or not in its good spot, she knew it immediately.

It was her place. Her projects. Her life. Everything she has worked on at work, but also during her scarce free time.

“ Wow. That place is depressing, ” said Walani as they entered the room.

“ _I’m sorry?_ ”

This woman. This fucking woman. Winona took a deep breath. Professional. Be professional Winona.

“ Yea, it’s so small? And grey. And it doesn’t have any window. But heyy, I love all the garbage, though, ” said the black-haired woman as she took a few steps in.

_Stay calm Winona. Not worth it._

“ Well, you should get comfortable because this is the place where you are going to work most of your time and this ‘garbage’ like you are calling it, are the things you are going to work on. ”

“ Yea, yea, I know. Ouhhh what’s that? ” said Walani as she saw the panel on the wall.

“ That’s fo— ”

 _Bzzzz_ … Walani had already pressed it. Of course…

“ Oh that’s for lifting the car. See? I’m good at this. ”

 _Bzzzz_. She pressed it again.

“Could you stop that before— ”

‘ **BONK** ’ The car hit the ceiling with a loud noise and reeled dangerously in the air.

“ Oh, Woups. ”

“ Okay! Enough! Listen to me before you make any accident! ” Winona blocked the panel with her arm.

“ _Geez_. Okay. Okay. The car looks already broken anyway. ”

_**Not worth it.** _

“ Okay. Listen carefully because I’m not going to repeat. I suppose that they told you already what you are supposed to do here? ”

Walani frowned.

“ Uh… No? They didn’t say anything. Like I had some kind of… interview. And they said I would be perfect for the job. But I didn’t even know that I would be a mechanic. ”

Winona took some time to process the information.

“ You… don’t have _any_ experience then? “

“ Hmm. I smashed a lot of things with a hammer with my little brother when we were little. Does it count? ”

Oh this was just worse and worse. They didn’t just give her an assistant. They gave her an assistant that didn’t know at all what she was doing! This was going to be so much a waste of time. Winona groaned interiorly.

“ This must be a mistake, “ she whispered to herself. “ It must be. I will ask Mrs. Wickerbottom about this tomorrow. ”

“ Mrs. Wickerbottom? ”

“ The old lady that opened the door for you. ”

“ Oh. Her. She’s nice.”

“ Yeah. But anyway, now, I gotta tell you everything, I guess, ” sighed Winona.

“ Or just don’t, ” Walani eyes sparkled with rebellion.

Winona ignored her.

“ The day starts at 7:00 AM. If you are late, the door is locked and you can’t go in. The work time usually last for 10 hours, but be prepared for more if necessary. ”

“ Oh man. That’s a lot of hours… ”

“ You have 45 min each day for lunch. You will know when it’s time when the bell rings. You probably heard it already when you were waiting. It’s really loud. You can’t miss it. When the bell rings again, it means that you have five minutes to go back to your station. For other people it means the department they are working in. For you it means _here_. Also, the uniform you are wearing right now is mandatory in all places and in all time in the factory unless you have special equipment to wear for the task you are doing. If you have personal belongings, you need to let it in the locker at the entrance. ”

Walani opened her mouth again to say something, but Winona didn’t let her.

“ This door, ” said Winona as her pointed the door they just entered before, “ Must always be open. Always. The only time that we close it is at the end of the day. This way, even when we aren’t there, people can put the stuff they want us to fix on the table or leave us a message telling us what they want for when we come back. ”

Winona pointed the particularly long table that was beside the wall. It was full of boxes, broken tools, objects and Post-its and torn pieces of paper.

“ On the right is the stuff that just got here. So ideally, you want to take care of those as fast as possible. People are waiting for it, so we can’t let it dwell for long. It’s really important. Entire units are depending on our efficiency!”

“ Yeah sure, ” said Walani with a somewhat flat voice.

“ One last thing, each week, they stick a piece of paper on our door with our task for the week. And by ‘ they ’, this time, I mean our real bosses. So these are absolutely obligatory. Here. This is what we have for this week. ”

Winona grabbed the important sheet of paper. Walani looked at Winona and reluctantly took the big yellow piece of paper.

ENTRY 0000167837495              DATE 06/16/XX UNIT             NUMBER M-006709

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —  
DISCLAIMER: NEW ASSISTANT MONDAY AT 9 AM. 30 MIN TRAINING, NO EXCEPTION  
**RESUME WORK AS ALWAYS**  
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

**MAJOR TASKS:**

\- PIMPING MACHINERY SERIAL NUMBER 0067-98039-3938-409 IN UNIT B-09  
NEEDS: INSPECTION

\- HEATING UNIT AT UNIT S-19-A-008  
NEED: SUPERVISION

 

        …

 

“ Ugh, ” said Walani as she held the paper at her fingertips with a strong disdain clearly visible on her face. For the first time since she had entered in the factory, she looked deeply annoyed.

“ What? ”

“ Y’know they could ask instead of writing it on a piece of paper. This is like, the basic if you want someone to do something for you.

Asking? _Didn’t she realize that this was a job?_ Other people decided what you were doing and it was _fine_. This was the price to pay when you worked somewhere that was so grand.

“Well, if they were _asking_ us to do it, that would be incredibly inefficient. That’s a terrible idea, ” the word blurted from Winona’s mouth as an automatic mechanism.

“ Well, that would be _nicer_ , ” sighed Walani.

“ It’s not the time to be nice! We’re here to work! Nothing else! ”

“It doesn’t bother you that they just stick your instructions on your door and leave? Did you even see their faces at some point? ”

“ _We don’t need to_. ” Winona was beginning to be highly confused about where this conversation was going. This was simple. It was simple. Why wasn’t it simple? Walani was probably purposely losing time. Yeah, that made sense. “Anyway, why are we still talking about that? This is how this place works. So the only thing you can do is to get used to it if you want to keep this job. ”

Walani looked at her in a weird way. Puzzled and confused, like if she couldn’t believe how Winona was acting. But also as if she was weirdly really disappointed in her.

“ Do you have any question or can we move on to something else already?” insisted Winona.

Walani took her time to answer. She sighed again and looked on the side, grumpily sticking her hands in her pockets.

“ … and I thought that you would help me bypass all that stupid work, ” she mumbled with a sulky tone.

Winona that was about to turn around to start working suddenly froze.

“ Wait… **WHAT**? ”

“ Doesn’t look like it will be the case, “ Walani rolled her eyes. ” Should have expected that from last time. ”

She said that last line with clear bitterness, a tone that neatly contrasted her joyful aura from earlier.

“ _You thought I would help you to skip work!?_ ” Winona was shocked at the mere thought of it.

“ Well, you owe me that much for making me lose my job! You think I forgot?! ” exploded Walani as if it was something she had on her heart for a while.

“ I didn’t make you lose your job! You did that yourself! I have absolutely nothing to do with it. ”

“ I’m sorry? Walani took a step forward. “ One word. ONE WORD. And everything would have been fine!”

Winona crossed her arms. “ Not my fault. If you need someone to LIE to cover your ass, you don’t deserve that job clearly. ”

“ WOULD IT HAVE HURT TO BE LIKE A DECENT PERSON FOR LIKE ONE SECOND? Who are you to tell me what I deserve ANYWAY? ”

The woman was truly angry with her. Winona felt the tiny layer of professionalism she had managed to keep until now melt instantaneously.

“I JUST WANTED A SANDWICH! ” she yelled.

“ IS MY LIFE WORTH A SANDWICH? ”

Walani had begun to gesticulate vividly her arms around as she spoke. Winona suddenly noticed that the arm was moving dangerously close to the panel from earlier. Winona’s mind quickly switched from anger to emergency. She held out her arm.

“ Watch out! The panel! ”

Too late, Walani’s wrist hit the red button, and they both turned their head as they saw the car ascend toward the ceiling way too quickly.

— MOVE! yelled Winona as she pulled a frozen Walani close to her.

The car hit the ceiling again and this time the rope broke immediately. Winona had just the time to throw their two bodies backward on the floor before it went crashing on the place they just stood before.

The car also hit several of the workshop’s desks knocking everything on the floor everywhere.

“ Shit… ” murmured Walani as the dust went down around them. She lifted her body and her eyes looked at the mess around.

“ Are you okay?” asked Winona looking at her.

“ I’m… I’m really sorry, ” responded the other woman with a shaky voice.

Winona also looked around her. Yeah, the place was a complete disaster now.

“ Nah, this one is on me. I never thought that I would be working with someone else so I didn’t exactly design the place with security in mind. ”

“ I — ” started Walani, but she never finished her sentence. Her gaze getting lost in the debris that had scattered everywhere.

“ … Are you sure you’re okay? Did I toss you too hard on the floor or somethin’? ” Winona asked with concern, but quickly, Walani looked as if she had recovered a little because she smiled timidly at her.

“ Dude! You totally just saved my ass! ”

“ …you thought I was just going to let someone get crushed in front on me? Never on my watch! ” proudly declared Winona. She glanced at all the broken pieces around here. “ But it is going to take a while to clean all that up, though. ”

Walani anxiously replaced a strand of hair behind her ear.

“ Do you think they will fire me over this? _Shit_. This is my first day after all. ”

“ They don’t need to know. But we should hurry up cleaning all this before someone notice and begin to ask questions. ”

“ I’m really sorry, ” repeated Walani with an apologetic tone.

Her eyes looked sincere. For the first time, Winona noticed how green they were.

“ I’m also sorry that I made you lose your job… I really didn’t mean it…” said Winona.

Walani had a little laugh.

“ Oh you were right. It wasn’t actually your fault. The guy was looking for an excuse to fire me anyway. I guess I just got a little stressed, ” Walani stood up and turned her back on Winona, “ Man, I didn’t know that one day I would be so nervous about having a job. Times change, huh? ”

Winona didn’t respond immediately. She looked away in shame.

“ I— I also apologize for losing my cool. I’m being a terrible mentor. ”

It was her job after all. To make sure that Walani would adapt well to the workplace. She realized that she had lost her temper really quickly. There was just something about Walani that made her somehow on edge. But that was no excuse. This was terribly unprofessional even for her.

“ Nah, you’re okay. I know that I’m not the ideal worker. ” Walani kicked a piece of debris that bumped on a broken wood plank. “ I just… can’t. ”

“ Everybody can. Actually, that will be my challenge! Making a good worker out of you! ”

“ Heh, good luck with that. ” Walani’s eyes met Winona’s again. She looked at her like she was trying to read them. “ You’re a weird person you know? I really don’t get you. ”  
Winona smiled at her.

“ Ha! I absolutely don’t get you either. ”

They stood like that in silence for a few seconds.

“ So, do you know how to fix a table? Because I don’t and I want to conserve this job for at least a little while, ” Walani winked at her.

With that, they went to work. And as they cleaned and sorted out all the tools on the floor, Winona showed them to her new assistant. Walani didn’t look to be particularly interested in the screwdrivers or the wrenches, but found affinity with the hammers and the utility knives. Winona gave herself a mental note to put her on smashing or destroying duty if possible or something not too physical because, to be honest, Winona realized rapidly that Walani wasn’t the strong type. But it was fine; Walani had other things going on for her. To be honest Winona would be lying if she didn’t admit that Walani humorous remarks weren’t entertaining.

As they departed at the end of the day, the workshop looked even better than before. The walls were still grey, it still didn’t have any window and they weren’t even completely able to erase all the traces from where the car collapsed, but as Winona closed the workshop’s door, she felt that these truly belonged in the place that she almost called home.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, yelling at each other is necessary if you want a healthy relationship


	3. Every Day Is Normal If You Get Used to It Enough

It was a busy morning. After giving back a repaired typewriter and urgently fixing a conveyor belt in the birdhouse assembly line, Winona hurried in the direction of the workshop.

It had been already several days since Walani has arrived in her new workplace and as expected, she was terrible at everything Winona gave her to do. But, surprisingly, she did try her best most of the time. For this reason, Winona was beginning to feel a little more optimistic about Walani’s arrival. But she didn’t feel comfortable to let her alone for an extended period of time yet.

Indeed, for some reason letting Walani alone was, well… not a good idea. For a lot of reasons. When she left this morning, she just gave her the task to strip a big pile of wire of the plastic to get the copper. That was simple enough right?

 

Winona began to walk faster.

 

Around the young woman, the other workers looked agitated. Lots of people were running in the corridor. Apparently, some weird smoke had been spotted in the other side of the factory that had caused people to evacuate their stations. But because they were still expected to deliver their work to be paid, there was chaos everywhere as people tried to move somewhere else. It _sucked_ and Winona would have gladly helped, but it didn’t look like it was caused by some machinery malfunction because they had not called her.

At the next corridor, two older women were aggravating the chaos by loudly barking orders at the distressed workers. One was tall and wore big round glass and the older was smaller and had thick orange frizzy hair. The supervisors. They were the ones who mostly took care of the discipline among the assembly lines.

Winona lowered her head as she passed next to them. She knew that they were nasty people. A lot of rumours circulated about them in the factory. Winona didn’t know which were true but she knew that it was in her best interest to keep a low profile near them.

 

After walking some more, the woman finally reached the workshop “Walani?” she asked as she stepped into the room.

“Ughhh,” responded a voice behind a big stack of wires.

Winona walked around the pile and saw a discouraged looking Walani behind.

“ You aren’t finished yet? ”

“ Does it look like I’m finished?! ” Walani laid her head on the table she was working on. “ I hate life right now. ”

Winona looked at the box of copper strings on the floor beside the table. It wasn’t even half full. And it was covered with little twisted pieces with bits of plastic everywhere. A mess.

“ I think you are doin’ it wrong. Gimme me the pliers, I will show you, ”

Walani didn’t respond. Nor raised her head from the table.

“ Walani? ”

Walani turned her head a little, showing a glimpse of her tired eyes.

“ I need fooooooood. Is it lunch yet? ”

“ In one hour ”

“ Ughhh. End meeeee already. ”

“ Aren’t you dramatizing this a little? How can you be tired just by stripping wires? ”

“ I’m not only tired. I’m also STARVING, ” roared Walani as she stretched her arms on the table, making some wires fell on the floor in the process.

“ You’re always hungry. ” Winona went and took another pair of pliers from the other workstation. “ Hey, wake up. If we hurry up, we can finish before eating. ” No response. “ Walani come on. ” Winona impatiently began to shake the corpse.

Walani turned again and looked at Winona with unenergetic eyes.

“ Do I _really_ have to? ”

“ I will only agree to help you if you do it with me, ” Winona pointed the stack of wires. “ Or y’know, you could continue doing this for the rest of the day, ” she menaced.

Walani looked like she had been proposed the most painful idea in her life and lifted her body immediately. In the last few days, Winona had quickly understood that the most effective way to make Walani do something was to somewhat hint to a way worst outcome.

“ Pleaaaaase anything else than those stupid wires. ”

“ Yeah, yeah, look, if you use the pliers delicately like this, you will have better result... ”

They somehow finished stripping the wires in one hour. It didn’t go too bad. Walani almost stopped complaining, but when the bell rang she jumped immediately.

“ Yes! Food! ” If she looked tired before, she wasn’t anymore.

“ See? It wasn’t that bad. ” Winona lifted the box that now contained only cooper and put in on a table. “ We can go now. ”

As Winona walked in the direction of the entrance to go grab her lunch in her locker, Walani followed her like always.

“ You still didn’t memorize the path to the canteen? ” said Winona.

“ Can you blame me? _Did you see that building?_ Everything could be burning and I wouldn’t even be able to find the exit. ”

They turned right and followed a narrow corridor until Winona opened an unnamed door that took them to a rusty spiral staircase.

“ That doesn’t sound safe, ” said Winona. “It doesn’t bother you? ”

“ What truly bothers me is that everything is so grey, ” responded Walani disapprovingly the next corridor they went into. “ I just don’t get it. It just gives bad vibes yknow? ”

“ It ain’t that bad. ”

“ You always say that. ”

Winona knew that since Walani arrived, the thing she looked like she missed the most was the sun. Indeed the factory barely had windows therefore the only time they could see the daylight was during the morning when they hurried to work. Winona often saw her sigh as she drew little suns the blackboard next to where they wrote their weekly tasks. The very metallic look of the factory probably didn’t help much either.

They finally arrived in the entrance with the lockers. Usually, this would be the time when they had a little chat with Mrs. Wickerbottom, but this time, they were greeted with an empty desk.

“ Hmm… That’s weird. Usually, Mrs. Wickerbottom is at her desk at this hour.”

“ Hmm? The old lady?” Walani shrugged. “ Maybe she went to pee or something.”

“ I guess that’s possible. ”

Winona opened the locker assigned to her and grabbed the paper bag that had her lunch. But she suddenly had a strange feeling in her guts. She stopped and began looking at Wickerbottom’s desk again.

“ What’s wrong? ” asked a perplexed Walani.

“ Maybe I should go check on her. Just in case, ” muttered Winona.

Now that she was thinking about it, Winona had never seen Wickerbottom leave her station before. It was just something that never happened.

“ What? Now?? ” Walani glanced at the giant clock. “Y’know she’s a grown-up, I’m sure she’s _fine_.”

“… ”

“ Winona? U okay? ” repeated Walani.

“ Yeah. Sorry. You’re right. I’m coming. ”

There were a thousand possible explanations on why would Wickerbottom have left her desk. It wasn’t the time to get distracted on things that had no significance. She needed to focus.

They began walking again. The trip felt quieter this time.

“ What’s going on? Why are you being so worried? ” Walani asked, breaking the silence.

“ I dunno… I think it’s because she said something a little strange some weeks ago. ”

Walani’s eyes opened with surprise.

“ What? What did she say? ”

 _What did she say?_ It was blurry in Winona’s mind. She remembered the conversation they had two weeks before, but since Mrs. Wickerbottom had acted like nothing happened at all and, to be honest, Winona’s mind had been occupied since.

“ I don’t even know. It wasn’t even anything really specific. Just somethin’ about being careful. ”

“Aw she’s cute. She’s probably worried about you.”

“ Yea. Probably. ”

 

 

***

 

 

After some time, they finally pushed the canteen’s door and Walani’s eyes immediately lit up.

“ Food! Finally!” She turned to Winona. “ Are you going to get something? ”

“ Yeah, I think I’m going to grab some coffee. ” Winona felt more tired than she would have liked to be.

“ Cool! Let’s go! ”

The canteen was as crowded as ever. Walani didn’t hesitate before slipping expertly in the crowd of people in direction of the food counter. Winona followed her with difficulty. How was she so fast? She bumped into few people and hastily apologized before continuing on her way.

When she finally arrived at the food counter, Walani was already speaking with a tall and skinny dark-skinned man with a chef’s hat. Winona didn’t buy food often but she vaguely recognized him. Warly was his name, she remembered. The only thing she knew about the guy is that he was really into cooking and she had also heard someone say that if you said something bad about his cooking, _he would make you pay for it._

Winona didn’t know if it was an exaggeration or not but didn’t really particularly wish to find out anyway.

“ Bonjour Walani! ” he said to Walani with a warm voice as if she was already an old friend.

“ Heyy dude! What’s today’s menu? I’m sooo hungry! ”

“ Banquette de veau and for the side, gratin Dauphinois! ” said Warly. “ Well, that was the plan, but, tu sais, it’s more like vegetable stew with potatoes more than anything else sadly. ” He shook his head. “ Such a waste! You know, I really think that they should give me more options, like how can I even express any creativity if I’m giving those barely comestible ingredients? ”

Walani nodded.

“This is unacceptable!, ” he continued. “ To be honest, we should revolt. This is unacceptable! They say it’s because of budget, but c’est complètement AB-SURDE! Food is a priority. I don’t understand why it isn’t treated as such. People need life! They need substance! They need…”

Warly continued for a while and Winona stopped listening as she served herself a warmish cup of coffee. The sounds dulled around her as she looked at the pale brown mixture filling her plastic cup.

“ … I wouldn’t drink that if I were you, ” Warly’s voice suddenly resonated in her ears. “ This coffee is absolutely dreadful. If I could I would put all that in the sink. ”

Winona turned to look at the man. He was looking at her cup with a concerned expression.

“ Well, it would be a waste to throw away something that’s free. And it’s better than nothing, ” responded Winona with honesty.

“ Can’t argue against that, ” Warly responded with a shrug. “ But as the chef, I do want to apologize about the poor quality nevertheless. ”

“ Aw come on, ” Winona smiled at him and took her cup. “I wouldn’t blame you for this. ”

People were wrong about Warly, she realized, he was actually quite nice.

“ I will be at the table like always Walani. ” Winona said to her co-worker.

“ Got it! ” responded the other young woman and vividly continued to talk with the man.

Winona took some time to find where Woodie and Wolfgang were seated. The place swarmed like a beehive. She finally noticed her friends in one corner. Wolfgang waved at her when she arrived and Woodie smiled timidly. They then exchanged few jokes like always, but at some point, Wolfgang stopped talking and began looking around.

“Where’s new friend? ”

“ Getting food like always. ”

Since her arrival, Walani also encountered no difficulty integrating their group. Woodie and Wolfgang already liked her a lot. In reality, there was just something about Walani that seemed to make everybody appreciate her. Winona wasn’t sure exactly what.

“ Tough week fixing lady? Looking tired, ” asked Wolfgang.

“ I guess I am a little, ” responded Winona as she took a sip of the bland coffee.

“ Not surprising, everybody here needs a vacation, ” Woodie responded.

“ Who talked about vacations? Because I’m really interested! ”

Walani finally arrived putting down a tray full of food on the table.

“ Little woman just arrived and already wants vacation? ”

“ I will _never_ say no to a vacation ever, ” Walani sat next to Winona. “ Who in their right mind would say no to that? ”

Winona didn’t want to comment on that and opened her lunch instead.

“ I’m always surprised about how much food you can afford, ” commented Woodie with a perplexed look toward Walani’s mountain of food.

“ The secret: always be friends with the cook, ” said Walani with a wink.

“ Wolfgang wants some! ”

“ No touching! It’s MINE. ” Walani protected her food with her entire body like a cat would protect its territory.

“ Just little taste! ”

Winona chewed her lunch for the duration of their good-natured bickering. She focused on the bland taste of the cold pasta bowl. Naturally, her mind began to contemplate all the work that needed to be done after.

This week had been more complicated to organize because she had needed to take Walani into consideration, but if the next day went well, it would be an acceptable week. Not good, but acceptable. So it wasn’t so b—

“ Okay dude! I will give you this cookie, but only because I’m the best friend you will ever have. ” Walani presented the cookie with the palm of her hands. “ Please take this offering as proof of my everlasting generosity. ”

“ Everlasting generosity heh? You gave him the small one, ” grinned Woodie.

“ I’m younger, so it makes sense. And I’m working suuper hard. Right Winona? ”

“ Sure, ” sighed Winona.

“ Hmm Wolfgang gladly accepts this delicious gift, ” commented Wolfgang as he put the cookie in his mouth.

“ Hey Woodie? ” asked Winona as she saw some worker enter the canteen with dark circles under their eyes. “ Do any of you guys know by chance what caused the evacuation in bloc G this morning? ”

Woodie shook his head.

“ No… They didn’t say anything. ”

“ Wolfgang heard that it was from science department! ”

“ The science department again? ” scoffed Winona. “ They should talk to the person running that place! Don’t they realize all the chaos they’re making? ”

“ I dwon’t get why they don’t just send everybody home,” said Walani chewing a big piece of food. She swallowed, not without difficulty. “ They can’t work anyway. It just makes no sense to make them stay here. ”

“The boss would never permit that, ” intervened Woodie.

“ The ‘boss’ huh? Who even is he? ” Walani raised an eyebrow.

“ Don’t hungry lady remember the place’s name? Factory belongs to Wagstaff. He’s boss. ”

“ Yeah, I understood that, but what kind of person is he? ”

Winona, Wolfgang and Woodie looked at each other.

To be honest, Winona never saw the man. She didn’t remember seeing him in a newspaper or anywhere. The only thing she knew is that, five years ago, he had arrived in town, created the Wagstaff factory and was very rapidly met with rapid success and fortune. The factory grew and grew to become the giant thing it was today. The man had been praised to be an example of perfect efficiency and prosperity. At the beginning, Winona had hoped to see him, because she was interested to see the mind of a grand inventor, but as the time passed, she realized that it wasn’t going to happen soon and the thought had slowly faded away.

“ Never seen him, ” said Woodie. “ Sometimes he speaks in the intercom, but it’s pretty rare. ”

“ Wolfgang heard rumors that man was little crazy. ” Wolfgang whispered.

“Well, he is probably not _crazy_. He’s probably working really hard to manage this place, ” said Winona.

She respected the guy. This factory truly was something, even if it was messy on some occasions. Just the fact that the factory managed to power such a large quantity of machinery was by itself a huge accomplishment. In any case, if you wanted to witness all the important new technological advances, Wagstaff’s factory was the place to be.

“ How do you find him then? What if I want to complain about stuff? ” said Walani, her mouth full of potatoes.

The table went silent again,

“ That’s… a bad idea, ” said Woodie.

“ Yea, especially if you want to keep this job. ” Winona as she took another sip of her coffee.

“ What? Why? ”

“ Wolfgang knew a friend that asked to get a raise and was gone the next week. ”

“ What happened to them? ”

“ Got fired. Probably. Never saw man again. ”

“ Lots of people just stop showing up at some point. After we learn that they got fired somehow. It’s no joke, ” said Woodie. “ Complaining is bad especially with the supervisors. If you see them, don’t talk and just do as they say. ”

“Geez” Walani suddenly looked less hungry. “They sound nice.”

“ Well, just having a job is considered to be a privilege right now. It sucks but we can’t really do anything about it. ” Woodie said as finished his plate.

“ That is what they want you to think. ” Walani’s eye had this mischievous sparkle again. Her gaze met Winona’s “ Aha, I’m joking Winona, don’t make that face! Don’t worry! I promised to behave myself. Didn’t I? ”

“ The thing is that I never know if you are joking or not, ” responded Winona.

“ Aww come on I’m not _that_ bad, ” Walani’s smirk grew even larger.

“ … Sorry, I don’t want to interrupt your moment but, ” Woodie stood up. “ I gotta go. I told Lucy I would come see her after lunch.”

“ What moment? ” asked Winona.

“ See ya tomorrow Woodie! Say hello to Lucy for me, ” Walani waved at him.

“ The bell’s gonna ring soon anyway, said Wolfgang. He waved at his friend too. “ See you after work! ”

After few seconds, the bell did indeed ring and everybody in the canteen pliantly returned to their work again.

 

 

***

 

 

Winona didn’t know if she considered herself “ normal. ” She knew that she had somewhat… changed a little in the past years. She was maybe a little more stressed than before and she had fewer interactions with other people. But she was busy y’know. She didn’t have time to do the stuff she did before. She changed. She had responsibilities.

The blue and orange sparks flew around her head as she used her stick-welding tool to fuse a broken piece to another. She proceeded carefully; she didn’t want to damage the thick but fragile metal. At the end she raised her helmet to look at the result. Looked clean and professional. Perfect. She tossed the new piece, took another and started all over again.

She liked this. There was something in all this that she found completely mesmerizing. She didn’t know exactly what it really was. It was something she felt when she saw work being done. Efficiency? Productiveness? Something like that. Each second counted. Each second could be used to produce something new. She couldn’t afford to lose time.

She put down the last piece and took off her helmet. She welcomed the cold air. She was beginning to feel the sweat drip on her forehead.

“ You okay? ” asked Walani.

Walani was still doing the task Winona gave her one hour ago: organize their tools for tomorrow. It was near the end of the day. It was the time where usually the energy and concentration started to go down if you weren’t careful enough.

“ Yea, of course. Why wouldn’t I be? ”

“ You always look in a hurry. ”

“ Because I am. That’s called working _fast_. You should maybe try to do that something by the way. ” Walani pointed the tools on Walani’s desk.

“ I am working fast. ”

“ That’s not fast. ”

“What if _my_ pace was the normal one and yours is the way-too-fast one? ”

“That makes absolutely no sen— ”

They were then interrupted by small knock. A woman was standing beside the workshop’s entrance. She was small and wore a lovely green ribbon that was tied on her head. She also had gloves that were tinged with soil, a lovely color that matched her skin. She was looking unsure about if she should go in or not.

“ Hi!... Uhm… Am I interrupting something? ” she nervously grabbed her hand together. “ I can come back after if you want. ”

“ Genny! Of course not! Come in! ”

Winona tossed her tools on the side and took the opportunity to wipe her face a little.

“ Oh, you must be the new worker, ” Genny said to Walani.

“Hi! The name’s Walani. It’s nice to meet you! ”

“ I’m Geneviève, but you can call me Genny, ” responded Genny with gentle expression. “ I hope your first week went well. ”

“ Well, it was somewhat a rocky start, but I think we managed in the end, ” responded Walani with a sparkling smile.

“Nothing bad happened, right?” immediately asked Genny with a concerned voice.

“ I can tell you aall about it at some point. It’s a long story though.”

“ Heh, I would love to hear it. ”

“ So Genny, do you need some help with something? ” asked Winona as she arrived closer to them.

“ Oh, yeah. Actually, I was wondering if I could borrow a coping saw. ”

“ Of course! But why not go to the carpentry wing? They are closer to where you work.”

Genny jumped from one leg to the other.“ I guess I also wanted to see how you were doing, ” she said with a little smile.

That took Winona completely by surprise. “ Oh… Yeah… I’m fine. ”

A weird silence appeared between them. Winona didn’t really know what to say anymore and Genny also looked slightly uncomfortable.

 

“Humm, I will go get that saw.” Winona didn’t really like the awkwardness in the air. She tried to use a relaxed tone. “ Hey thank you for showing me gardening the other day.” She said as she grabbed the saw from the wall. “ It was fun. ”

Genny’s eyes immediately lit up.

“ Yeah! We should do that again at some point! I don’t have a lot of free time now, but maybe in a few weeks when they hire a new worker. ”

“ What? What happened to the other person? ”

“ I— I don’t really know. They stopped showing up and when I asked about them, and they told me not to worry about it. ”

“ Ah… I see. I hope they get a new person soon then! And here the saw, you can keep it for as long as you want, we have another one. ”

“ Thanks a lot! ” Genny took the tool but just stood there, in front of Winona. “ Soo… Uhm. I should probably get back to work. Before the supervisors notice something… ”

“ It was really nice to see you dude! Come back whenever you want! ” said Walani and Genny jumped as if she had forgotten that she was there too.

“ Oh, yeah! Thanks! It was really nice to see you too Walani! I hope we get more time to talk in the future. ”

“ See ya next time then! ”

Winona waved too and the two women looked at Genny leave in silence.

When she just had turned the corner, Walani Immediately turned to Winona.

“ Dude. Oh. My. God. She’s so into you. ”

“ _What?_ ”

“ Oh, come on it’s like the most obvious thing ever. Did you see how she was looking at you? ”

“ It’s a little quick to say that she’s into me. ”

“ Trust me. She is. So what do you think? Do you reciprocate? ” Walani suddenly looked pretty interested.

“ I absolutely have way too much to do to think about stuff like that, ” Winona picked up a new box that she put on her working desk. She was telling the truth; she didn’t have time. To be honest, she didn’t have time to have any form of relationship in general.

“ We’re just friends. And it’s fine like that. ”

“Hmm, Poor Genny. I feel a little bad. She’s so nice. Why don’t she sit with us at lunch? ”

Walani took a screwdriver that was on her desk and made it spin playfully on the table.

“ She works in the gardening department, it’s at the other side of the building. She doesn’t eat at the same canteen as us. ”

“ We should go visit her during lunch. ” Walani made the screwdriver spin vertically this time until it fell down, rolling dangerously close to the table’s edge. “ Yeah let’s do that! ”

“ We can’t. We aren’t supposed to change canteen. They’re designed to have just the right amount of seats for the units around them. Also, it would be a little shitty to ditch Woodie and Wolfgang like that. ”

“ We bring them. ”

“ That makes the seat problem even worst. ”

“ That’s not even an issue! We just have to convince people to change place with us. ” Walani made the screwdriver spin even faster, that flew directly past the safety of the table.

“ Walani… ” Winona caught the screwdriver before it hit the floor. “ Don’t lose focus. We have a lot of work to do. ” Winona pointed to Walani’s unfinished work on the desk.

“ Oh shit you are right. ” Walani slapped her forehead with her hand. “ I forgot about Warly! If we change canteen, who is going to give me free food then?!?!? ”

“ Okay, Walani. I’m sorry but the break is over. I don’t want to hear a word from you until you finished the work you are doing right now. It’s the only thing I’m asking. We really need it for tomorrow and I would like to be home before midnight. ”

“ Whaat? ” Walani turned toward Winona, looking directly in her eyes. “ But what if I need to ask a question? ”

Winona crossed her arms.

“ Do you have a question? ”

“ Yes.”

“ Is it an _important_ question? ”

“ Yes. ”

“ Okay, so… Ask it. ”

Walani’s eyes shined.

 

“ Have you ever been _in love_? ”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lil bit of exposition in this one. But it’s important I swear. Probably.  
> And yeah! Genny! If some people wondering who she is, she is that woman in Winona’s short.  
> Also, the two women in Willow’s short are here too. As you can probably see, they are such lovely ladies really.


	4. On Your Side

Winona opened the door of her tenement. She took her steel-toed boots off and threw her jacket on a chair. She was exhausted. She walked to the kitchen and heavily fell on one of the old wooden chairs. For a few minutes she contemplated the silence, only feeling her aching muscles that violently protested the intense day of work. She ignored it, of course, drowsing until she heard her stomach rumble loudly.

Ah food. Yes.

She stood up and opened her fridge. Leftover Potatoes. Hmm, she could do something like an omelette. Well, a one-egged omelette. Didn’t have any cheese left either. Oh well. Gotta eat something.

Winona’s quarters were, well, minimalist. Like a lot of workers, she didn’t live far from the factory, on the side of the city. She lived there since she started working, so it was pretty much the same then when she entered the first time: the wallpaper was tearing down in shred at some places, the floor had some planks that creaked precarious when you stepped on them and the decoration was pretty non-existent. The only thing she really did was to build some form of aeration system because she had learned before that good air quality wasn’t something to frown upon.

“ Shit, ” said Winona when she cracked a little too harshly her only egg. Little white shells fell everywhere in her food. Oh well, she had never been great with eggs anyway.

She finished her cooking and hungrily ate her meal. Finally satiated, she looked at the ceiling, unsure what to do next. This was the awkward time of the evening when it was still a little too early to go to sleep, but she was also too tired to do anything else. She listened to the noises: a couple were yelling at each other and she could hear each word. Also some baby was crying in the distance. Winona sighed. Maybe she would listen to some songs on the voxola radio before going to bed…

She was about to turn on the machine when she heard two little knocks. She immediately stopped and went for the door instead. She knew, what knocking on this door at this hour meant.

“ Charlie! ” she exclaimed with a large smile when she saw the other woman at the other side of the doorway.

“ Wynnie! ” exclaimed Charlie with a huge smile before closing in to hug her with great vigor.

“ Stop calling me Wynnie! You know I hate that nickname! ”

“ But it’s so cute. Like your faaace.” She squished Winona cheeks with her two hands.

“ Stop thaaat! ”

Winona expertly stepped back to escape from her sister’s embrace. She learned to do it with time. She rubbed one of her poor reddish cheeks with her hand.

“ Oh did I go too hard? Sorry I guess I got a little too excited to see you, ” giggled Charlie.

“ Tss it’s nothing, I just forgot how much of a pain in the ass having a little sister is. ”

“Isn’t it what little sisters are for anyway? ”

“ Definitely. ” Winona felt her lips curl into an honest smile. “ Come on in! I’m so happy to see you! It’s been a while! Do you want to eat somethin’ ? Or some tea? I know you like that stuff. ”

“ I wouldn’t ever say no to some cup of tea. ” Charlie said. “ Even in summer, the nights are a little cold sometime. ”

“ Got it! ”

Winona put some water to boil. Meanwhile, Charlie sat on the kitchen’s chair.

“ I see that you are still working in the factory. ”

“ Ha! You know it! And you? Y’a still working with that guy? ”

Charlie chuckled.

“ Yup! Always. ”

Winona sat on the other chair.

“ He’s mayor now, huh? Yeesh, so fancy. ”

“ I wanted to bring him today, but he had stuff to do. It’s really a shame that you two didn’t meet yet. ”

“ I can’t wait. ”

“ But enough about me! How are _you_? ” continued Charlie with a more serous tone.

“ Never been better! ”

Winona said that last sentence with great confidence, but Charlie looked unconvinced because she started scrutinizing her with a worried expression.

“ You look tired, ” she finally concluded.

“ I don’t know why everybody is telling me that these days, ” sighed Winona.

Behind them, the kettle with the tea’s water began to whistle.

“ Maybe because you _do_ look tired? ” mocked Charlie.

“ Okay smartass. ” Winona poked her sister’s forehead before removing the kettle from the fire and pouring it in an old teapot.

“But seriously, you are not overworking too much right? ”

“ Me? Naaah. Pfff. Of course not. ”

Charlie arched an eyebrow.

“ Last time you told me you wouldn’t. You know, that can’t be good for y— ”

“ Here your tea. I don’t think I have sugar this time, though. ”

“ Thanks, but you’re dodging the subject. ”

“ I’m not dodging anything. ”

“ Winona… ”

“OKAY. Okay. It’s just that… I guess it has been a crazy week. I just got a new co-worker for the first time and I’m a little nervous about it. ”

“ Seriously? That’s excellent!!! How are they? ”

Walani’s face popped in Winona’s mind. _Insolent, stubborn, unmotivated…_

“ … Difficult. She doesn’t like working. And authority in general actually. I’m having a tough time adjusting myself to her personality, ”

“ Oh she sounds great! I love her already! ”

“ Traitor! ” Winona began laughing. “ You’re supposed to be on my side! ”

“ I’m always on your side, Winona. Always. ”

Charlie calmly took a sip of her tea and for some reason, Winona felt those words sank into her heart. The two sisters then shared a peaceful silence that made Winona almost forget all the other noises around them.

“ But the thing is, we’re so … different. I don’t know if we can get along, ” said Winona with almost a murmur.

“ Is she a good person? ”

“ Hmm… Yes? ”

“ Then I have no doubt that you two will get along well at some point, ” continued Charlie.

She said it calmly, again, without one ounce of doubt in her voice. As if it was already absolute truth. Winona looked at her, puzzled. It had always surprised her how much Charlie could say some stuff like that with that much conviction.

Well, that was Charlie. If Winona excelled in building, assembling or anything involving manual tasks, Charlie’s talents were with _people_. Communication. Compassion. Charlie stopped conflicts. She talked to people. Understood them. And somehow usually managed to find common ground with even the most confrontational of them. Those impressive skills of hers were the reason why she was already a political advisor at such a young age.

It had always impressed Winona. Made her proud also. Her sister was truly phenomenal in her eyes. The only thing that Winona never understood is why Charlie had decided to be a political advisor instead of going directly into the spotlights. When, Winona had asked her some years ago, Charlie had just shrugged and said something in the likes of: “ That’s what I feel like doing right now.”

Winona always wondered if there was another reason.

“ Okay I guess I need to work on that. So, about you how’s work at the moment? ”

Charlie lifted her eyes from her cup. “ Hmm? Me? Oh. A little bit complicated these days. Maxy had been talking to a lot of people. ”

“ ‘Maxy’ huh? ”

“ It’s not what you think it is! Our relationship is … professional. ”

“ You don’t look sure about it. Y’know it’s fine if you like him, I won’t judge. ”

“ …it’s not that. He has just been acting a little weirdly for some time now. ” Charlie stared at her cup of tea again. “I just need to talk to him… ” she murmured.

“How weird? Like really weird? ”

Charlie suddenly shook her head and smiled.

“ No, it’s fine. In any way, I would prefer to keep this to myself for now, at least until I exactly know what’s going on. Because he’s the mayor and all that.”

“ Hum, okay. Should we be worried about the town, though? ”

“ Oh no, don’t worry, we’re all working really hard right now. We are mainly looking at options to improve the economy. Sadly as you probably already saw, a lot of shops and places had been closing in the last year. Maxwell had been speaking a lot with Wagstaff lately. I think they are planning to expand the factory some more. ”

“ Really? But it’s already pretty big. ” Winona recalled all the day’s chaos in the building. She had trouble imagining how it would be with even more wings attached to it.

“ Yeah, I’m not too keen on the idea myself. The town is enough grey as it is now and we already had to close the beach last year because of the pollution. But the thing is, people are desperate for jobs right now and the factory is the only thing that’s going well. ”

Winona liked the factory, but Charlie was right. The town did look a little grey these days.

“ Hey don’t worry, ” Charlie smiled with confidence. “ Your little sis is going to find a solution, I promise! ”

“ Heh! I have no doubt you will! ”

They kept talking for several minutes after that. Talking with her sister felt good. It always did. But after a while, her suddenly mind felt foggy, her exhaustion hitting all her body at once.

Charlie noticed pretty quickly.

“ Hey you don’t look too good. Are you okay? You really are tired, aren’t you? ”

“ Ha! It’s nothing! ”

“ Winona… ”

“ Okay I might be a little tired. ”

“ That what I thought, I should let you rest. ” Charlie stood up.

“ Aww Man! Don’t leave just because of a lil drowsiness! ”

“ You have work tomorrow and I worry about your health. ”

“ My _health_ , right? Why is it always my _health_?” she spat.

Despite herself, bitterness had invaded Winona’s voice. She was getting really annoyed that everybody was looking at her like she was sick or somethin’. She wasn’t sick! Why were they looking down at her like that? She was fine!

“ Because it’s important Wynnie. I don’t think you ever took any form of vacation since you began working there. ” Winona opened her mouth to protest again but Charlie stopped her as she put her hand on Winona’s in a reassuring manner.

“ Listen, Winona you are the hardest worker I have ever known and I am so proud to be your sister and nothing will ever change that, but since the mines, you— you have been working like crazy. I know… That you may need to take your head off… things. But please consider letting yourself rest. Have fun. Or anything really. I know that you are an incredible worker, but I also know that you were also a lot more than that. That you _are_ way more than that. ” Charlie grabbed her hand.

Winona looked at Charlie. Somehow she felt like no word could escape her lips.

“ Will you promise to at least try? ” continued Charlie.

“Yeah, okay sure,” responded Winona.

“ Thank you. ”Charlie put her coat on without waiting for Winona to react. “ I will let you sleep now. I will probably come back in the next few days. Or maybe a little longer when I have some time. ”

She opened the door.

“Please also be careful. Some people told me that they were cases of missing people near this district. I know you’ll probably be fine, but you can’t be too cautious. ”

“ Charlie? ”

“ Hmm? ”

“Take care of yourself too. ”

“ Of course. ”

Winona watched as Charlie closed the door and left. She was alone again in the small kitchen.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little chapter! But hey it's Charlie.


	5. B1: Trial by Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walani and Winona began their descend to the factory’s heart. And things don’t really go as planned….

“ We have a big day ahead of us! I hope you’re ready! ” announced Winona in front of a really tired Walani.

Winona had slept well. More than well actually. She was feeling more energized and motivated than ever. That was the proof that anything could by resolved by a good night’s sleep, right?

In addition, when she arrived to the factory that morning, Wickerbottom had greeted her like always. Winona concluded that the older woman was, indeed, in good health and that she had probably been a little too quick to worry the day before.

It was probably a sign that she needed to put all doubts behind and just keep doing what she did best

Working.

“ Ughh, was it really necessary to come this early? No one even there yet… ” The bags under Walani’s eyes were quite noticeable.

“ Yes, because today we have two last important tasks left to do for the week and you’re comin’ with me! We’re a little short on time this week, so this is the only day we’re going to have. ” Winona pointed the blackboard on the wall with their weekly tasks. All had been crossed out apart from two:

GO SEE HEATING UNIT

FIX PUMPING DEVICE

Winona was extremely proud of their progress that week so far. At some point, she had feared that they wouldn’t have the time to do everything, but they had managed at the end. She had to pull off some extra time during the week and almost slept in the workshop at some point, but it was, of course, totally fine. Nothing mattered more than completing the list.

“ I’m so fucking ready for my day off tomorrow, ” said Walani with a yawn.

“ Good, because we aren’t leaving before we finish this. ”

“ _Oh my god._ ”

Winona ignored her unenthusiastic partner and looked around her. “ Do we have all the tools? The ones you gathered yesterday? ”

“ Yup. There. ” You’re welcome by the way. It was hell to find them all. “ Walani rubbed her eyes again before continuing. “ Like how the hell am I supposed to know the difference between a 24 mm open-end wrench and a 16 flare-nut wrench? Seriously, it would have been soo faster if you did it yourself. ”

“ Ha! It was excellent practice for you. ” Winona lifted the toolbox in one powerful swing. “ Now, let’s go! No time to lose! ”

Winona began to walk and Walani followed her with difficulty, trying to keep up with the pace.

“ Is it far? ”

“ A lil’ bit. We need to go to the heating room. ”

The black-haired woman groaned a little. “ What do they even need us to do? ”

“ Apparently, somethin’ is wrong with the heating. It’s too hot.” Winona paused to think for a moment, “But I don’t understand why they asked us to go look at it to be honest. The coal needs to be added directly, so I don’t see how the temperature would be difficult to control. Someon’ already working full time just to do that. ”

“ Why don’t they talk to them directly?? ”

Winona shrugged.“ No idea. Guess we’ll see! ”

They passed the meat-processing unit and the rooms with the cotton gins and then reached a long corridor that took no less than ten minutes to traverse.

“ I swear, this place is even bigger in the inside than the outside… ” mumbled Walani.

“This way, ” pointed Winona.

Because it was so early, everything was empty and the only sounds that could be heard were the static noises of the neon lights and the clatter of the rusty giant fans. They entered the part of the building that had several huge warehouses.

Winona guided Walani into one that had no identification whatsoever and that was filled with mountains and mountains of dusty boxes that almost reached the ceiling.

“ Is this even the good way? ” asked Walani as she reached the top of one of the nearest boxes with her hands and let her finger slide of them, making a heavy cloud of dust elevating on the air. “ This looks abandoned. ”

“ Surprisingly, yeah. I don’t think there are any others.”

“ What’s in all those boxes? ”

“ No idea. ”

“You don’t know? ” Walani took her hand off the box. “ But dude, what if there is something _creepy_ inside? ”

“ There’s nothing creepy inside of them. ”

“How can you be _sure_? You never opened any. ”

Walani was now looking at the piles of boxes with apprehension. For some reason, the sight amused Winona a little.

“ Well, now that you’re mentioning it, I think I heard something about organ trafficking…”

“ **WHAT?** ” Walani’s voice was so loud that it echoed in the entire warehouse.

“ Heh ”

“ Did you just… _Did you just made a joke?_ ”

“ You really fell for it. ” Winona couldn’t contain the little grin on her face.

“ I didn’t know that you could make jokes! ” Walani lifted her arms in disbelief.

“ _I’m sorry?_ I’m really good at jokes. ” Winona took great offense that someone would think that she wasn’t funny. Because she was. Obviously.

“ You never make any! ”

“ Not at work. ”

“But you’re _always_ at work! ”

Winona shrugged. “ Not always. ”

“ Dude. I need to see it with my two eyes to believe it. ”

Winona was about to respond again, but they had finally reached the tall but slim door she was looking for and it immediately reminded her of why they were there. No time for fun, this was work.

“ It’s here,” she said and pressed the correct combination on the panel next to it. She then pressed the arrow that pointed toward the bottom.

“ An elevator? ” Walani asked.

“ Yup. We’re going down. ”

“ Wow. Okay. Nice… ”

Walani looked around uncomfortably as they entered the small and darker space of the old elevator. Winona put down the toolbox she was carrying and pressed the button with the inscription “B-01” on it.

The metal doors closed with a screeching and the elevator loudly began its descend.

“ Is this safe? ” unnecessarily whispered Walani.

“ Yeah. Of course. Probably. There ain’t any accidents concerning this place to my knowledge. But at the same time, it’s not like a lot of people go this through this way. ”

“ That’s reassuring… ”

“ You’ worried or something? ”

“ Me? Naah. Of course not,” said Walani turning her head away. Winona doubted that she was being honest and opened her mouth to ask, but Walani immediately deviated the conversation again.“ Wow, okay they weren’t kidding when they said it was hot, ” she added while pulling on her jacket’s collar.

Walani was right. The heat was indeed getting more and more intense as they went down. The small place and the darkness didn’t help either. It closed around them like the inside of a chimney. Oppressive and dark.

Winona was beginning to worry a little. It wasn’t at all an acceptable temperature for a factory and even less for a human being to live and work in.

“ What the fuck is the person fueling this thing doing? This is way too hot! They will hurt themselves! ” she exclaimed.

“ Maybe they forgot to stop? ” suggested Walani.

The doors finally opened with the same horrible screeching sound as before and another relatively normal-looking corridor appeared in front of them. But at its end, a closed door did let through vivid oranges and red shadows that clearly indicated that the heater was fueled at an inappropriate level.

 

“ This is bad! “ Winona started running.

“ Wait for me! ” Walani ran behind her.

Winona reached the door as quickly as she could and swung it open without hesitation, almost expecting to find a dead body in the other side. She prayed with all her heart that she wasn’t too late.

 

What she found instead was the sight of a dark-haired woman with ponytails and a worn out bear plushy tied on her belt that was looking at her with annoyed eyes as she shoveled more coal into the heater’s blazing mouth.

“ What do **YOU** want? ” the strange woman said, not looking in the slightest affected by the terrible hot fire that was raging next to her.

“ You… You okay? ” Winona was dumbfounded. That person wasn’t even sweating!

“ What? Why wouldn’t I be okay? ”

Behind Winona, Walani finally arrived, out of breath.

“ Hff… Hff… That’s… a … big fire. ”

“ What do you guys want? _Can’t you two see that I’m working?!_ ” The woman tapped her foot on the black ground looking at the two other workers with impatience.

Winona was still shocked at what was going on, but her brain finally processed the situation. “ We are… We’re here to tell you to use… less coal. ”

“ What? ” the other woman looked suddenly very worried. “ Is there something wrong with it? Don’t tell me we don’t have any left! ”

“ No, at least, I don’t think so… but can’t ya see?!? ” Winona gesticulated vividly in the direction of the heater. “ You’re using WAY too much for what you’re supposed to do!!! ”

The heater looked like it was ready to explode, flames spilling out like an orange river.

“ _So, you’re here to tell me how to do my job?_ ” The woman took a step back. “ Just leave me already! ”

“ No! I’m just saying that this isn’t standard. It’s WAY too big! It’s dangerous! ”

The woman with the ponytails threw her shovel against the wall to face them properly and looked at Winona as if she just said the stupidest thing she had even heard in her entire life.

“ Too big? Too big??? She turned to the heater. ” YOU MEAN IT’S PERFECT. Look at it! It’s beautiful! ” The woman with the ponytails looked at the fire in bliss. She flames reflecting on her eyes.

“ That’s not perfect at all! This isn’t how you’re supposed to use this thing! You aren’t supposed to stuff it like that, that’s not what your job is about! ”

The woman turned to her again. “ My job is to put coal, ” she responded dryly.

Winona was beginning to feel a little impatient. That woman didn’t understand at all what she was saying. And why would anybody do something like that was _completely_ out of her comprehension.

“Listen, they said that it was getting too hot so, neither you like it or not, you need to respect the protocol. ”

“ Well, _‘they’_ can eat my butt! ” the woman clenched her fists tightly together with a menacing glare.

_“ What did you just sa— ”_

 

Walani suddenly put herself between them. “ Yeah, you’re right that fire is pretty rad. ”

Winona quickly turned toward her coworker, but Walani quietly dismissed her with a subtle hand gesture and a look on her face that clearly said something in the likes of: “ Dude. Relax. It’s fine. I know what I’m doing ” and Winona kept silent for once.

“FINALLY, you’re admitting it. ” The woman with the pigtails sighed loudly in direction on the ceiling.

Walani took a few steps closer. “ Yeah, it reminds me of volcanoes, it’s so pretty y’know. Well, maybe not if you’re too near it. ”

“ Hehe, true, ” the other woman giggled with enthusiasm.

Winona observed in surprise as Walani succeeded to calm their strange encounter in a matter of seconds. Walani talked with ease without any hint of discomfort, as if she was chatting pleasantly with acquaintances in the corridor. Winona unconsciously bit her lip and let Walani take care of the situation.

“ The name’s Walani by the way. ” Walani smiled warmly and pointed to Winona. “ And the grouchy one is Winona. She’s actually pretty nice. But she gets a lil’ bit like that about work in general. ”

“ I’m Willow, ” responded Willow. “ Happy to see ya. I don’t usually see a lot of people down here. ”

“ Man, it must get a little lonely sometimes, huh? I would if I were down here, ” said Walani with a detached voice looking around the empty room.

Willow didn’t respond immediately, her gaze got lost in the flames again.

“ I’m fine, I have the fires. ”

“ Yeaaaaaah, about that… ” Walani paused. “ The bosses kinda think that it’s making the place too hot. And they kindaa charged us to make sure it doesn’t. ”

“ _I hate them_ , ” spat Willow. “ They’re just a bunch of _meanies_! ”

“ I will trust you on that, ” said Walani with a wink but then pensively grabbed her chin. “ But we do have a problem here then, because, you see, we can’t let you continue like this or they will be mad at us. ” She took her hand off her chin. “ Well, to be honest, I’m pretty used in making my bosses mad, but… ”

Walani glanced at Winona for a little moment, and Winona felt her brain freeze.

“ I think I will try to avoid that this time, ” continued Walani with a little smile.

“ I’m not getting rid of this fire! ” Willow possessively blocked the front of the heater with her entire body.

“ Woah. Woah. ” Walani lifted both her hands on the air. “ Chill dude. Don’t worry. We won’t force anything on you. But we need to find some solution here. Or they will fire us all eventually. And that would suck. For all of us. ”

Willow stared at Walani for a few seconds, and finally she lowered her arms.

“ I don’t want to be fired, ” she murmured.

She turned her head back again toward the orange blaze.

“ You really like that fire, huh? Maybe we can give something else when it’s not burning. Winona, you got any idea?”

“ Uh, ” Winona woke from her torpor and coughed few times. “ Hmm, a lamp. Maybe? I can come to give you one of mine. ”

“ Does it… make fire? ” Willow responded hesitantly.

“ An oil lamp. It has a flame, but it’s behind glass, though.”

“ Oh… I see. ” But Willow did look a little disappointed. It was obvious that it wasn’t what she truly needed.

“ Oh dude! I know! ” Walani jumped in place. “ There’s this sweet spot on the beach where you can light giant fires! We should go all hang out there at some point! ”

Willow eyes lighted up.

“ Giant fire? I’m interested! ”

“ Yeah, it’s also waaay better than here. You’ll see, you can see the sky and the water and all that. ”

“As long as there’s a fire…”

“ So… You’re okay with that? ” asked Winona hesitantly.

Willow thought for a moment and finally sighed. “ Well, It’s not like It really have a choice anyway.” Her gaze went back to the fire, looking at it as if she was losing an old friend.

No, she indeed didn’t have a choice, but Winona did feel a little conflicted in front of the woman’s sad expression. Was this… okay? Was this everything that could be done?

An idea suddenly emerged in her mind. It was small, but something nonetheless.

“… Wait! I do think I might have a little something actually! ” She opened the toolbox to search through all the tools, pieces and junk. After a moment she found what she was looking for: an old rusty lighter that she usually used to seal lose extremities of ropes when she needed too.

“ Here, you can have this. It will at least last until we come back. And if it runs out, just come to the workshop and I will refuel it for you. ”

Willow grabbed carefully the lighter.

“ It’s a Japanese ‘Willow’ lighter. Kinda feels like you should have it… ” Winona continued.

The black-haired woman turned it in her hands, observing it carefully until she lighted it up in a quick motion with no hesitation.

“ I accept this, ” she declared.

“ Just be careful to not… burn anything. ” By the expression on Willow’s face, Winona wasn’t sure if it has been a good idea.

The woman smiled. “ Thanks. ”

 

***

 

 

After saying goodbye to Willow and making sure she was indeed not dying from the unbearable heat, Winona and Walani were now on the way for their next task, in another long corridor that was full of pipes that stuck out of the walls.

Winona thought about their strange encounter. That woman was a little strange in her eyes. Fire was such a safety hazard; it could destroy so many years of work. But at the same time, shoveling coal all day, completely alone in a kind of basement was a tough job. And like Walani said, pretty lonely. She was happy it got resolved well.

“ Hey, nice job by the way!” Winona said to her coworker. “ You... Really helped a lot. ”

“ Aww, thanks! I did nothing, though. You’re the one who gave her the lighter. ” Walani jumped over a dirty puddle that was on the floor. “ Man, I should have brought my rain boots. ”

“ Nah, seriously, I think I would be still there arguing with her without you! ”

Walani laughed. “ Yeah, you would. ” She jumped over another puddle again, but missed and splashed Winona’s pants in the process. “ Y’know, people are pretty easy. If you’re nice, they will usually to be nice with you too. ”

Despite the cold feeling now on her legs, a face popped inside Winona’s mind. With her curled dark hair and gentle face.

“ Bein’ _nice_ , huh? My sister said something like that before too. ”

“ Ah? You have a sister? ”

“ Yeah, her name is Charlie. You would like her; she’s really good with people too. She’s even a political advisor at the moment! ” Winona declared proudly.

“ Oh. She sounds nice. She’s like a real professional. I just practiced a lot with my little brothers when they were arguing. They’re such brats. ”

Winona smiled. “ Don’t tell me abou’ it! Younger siblings are always brats!”

They were now reaching a new corridor that was a little bit dimmer than the others. Some lights were broken, making dangerous looking sparks. Winona saw Walani’s face frown a little.

“ We’re almost done, right?” she said, looking uncomfortably around her. “This place is just so creepy.”

Winona looked around too. Creepy? She wouldn’t call it that. In urgent need of repairs and care? Definitely. But she understood why someone could maybe call it creepy. The numerous scratch marks and dark fingerprints on the walls could probably also maybe give that impression. Maybe.

“Don’t worry, we only have one little repair to do. It shouldn’t take long, ” responded Winona. “ The pump is probably broken again. ”

“ You don’t need me, do you? It’s not like you’re gonna need my help. ”

“ Hey! You gotta learn too! That’s the point! ”

Walani sighed.

“ Do I _really_ have to? ”

“ Well, you can always go back… ” Winona pointed behind her.

“ But I don’t know the way out! ”

“ Exactly. ”

“ Wow rude! ” Walani laughed and threw a friendly punch on Winona’s shoulder. But the teasing looked like it had improved her mood a little.

They finally entered the room they were looking for. It had better lighting than the corridor; therefore Walani sighed with relief.

“ It’s here. ” Winona put down the toolbox and glanced at the numerous valves and pipes on the wall.

In all her life, she had never seen a messier plumbing system than the one in Wagstaff’s factory. You definitely had to know what you were looking for. But Winona had done it numerous times before and kinda knew pretty much how it worked now. So this was hardly a challenge for her anymore. She immediately began to disassemble a few of the pipes.

“ Is it serious? ” asked Walani peeking above her shoulder.

“ Nup, it’s like I thought, it should be a super easy fix! See that? ” Winona showed one of the pieces. “ Broken. You can see that the plastic tore down here. That’s why the water in leaking everywhere. It’s pretty instinctive when ya think about it. ”

“ Fascinating, ” responded Walani with a distant voice.

Despite Winona’s best efforts, Walani stood awkwardly beside her during the entire process and nodded laconically at each word that Winona said. It was obvious that she was distracted by each creepy noise around them.

Winona proceeded quickly. After some time, she finally connected the last parts back together again. “ Alright! This should be good! ”

“ It is? ”

Winona stood up. “ Just need to test it first, and we can go! ”

She turned the wheel to open the valve with great confidence and for a few moments, everything felt fine, but suddenly clanging sounds resonated between the walls in an unsettling way and all pipes began to creak loudly.

“ That… doesn’t feel fine, ” said Walani in a breath.

“ Hmm, that’s weird. ” Winona leaned over to examine the pump again. “ Everything should be functioning normally. ”

“ Did you put the good pieces together? ”

“ Of course I did!... ” Winona had absolutely no doubt in the matter. “ The problem must be below. We’re gonna need to go look at it. ”

Walani began to jump on the spot, clearly annoyed.

“ Whaat? I thought we were already below! ”

“ Don’t worry, it’s not far. ” Winona took out her key ring from her pocket to unlock the other metal door on the wall next to them. “ And I think that this place has like three basement floors, we’re only at the first. ”

“Seriously?! One isn’t enough? What do they even put there?”

Winona shrugged.“ Stuff. I dunno. Most people aren’t allowed there anyway. ”

Winona found the little rusty key she was looking for and unlocked the door that made a loud noise when it opened, reveling a really old staircase that went into compete darkness.

“I think we’re going to need a flashlight, ” declared Winona.

“Woah. Okay. There is NO way I’m going in there! ” Walani crossed her arms.

“ Why not? ”

“ I know better than going into dark spooky staircases!”

“There’s nothing down there. Nothing to worry about. Only maybe one or two spiders. At most. ” Winona implored, but Walani didn’t bulge at all. “ But well, I guess I can’t force you, ” she shrugged. “ You can stay here if you want. ”

Behind them, the pipes suddenly made some other loud weird metallic noises that made Walani jump again. She looked behind her with a worried expression.

“ Okay. Geez. FINE. I’m coming, ” she rolled her eyes.

“ You sure? You _really_ stay here and wait if you want. I’m not forcing you.”

“ Yeah, I’m fine, ” sighed Walani.

Winona couldn’t contain a little smirk.“ Don’t worry, ya will get used to it eventually. ” She took the flashlight from the toolbox and put it on, illuminating the path. “ Come on! Let’s go. ”

Walani followed reluctantly as they began their descend into total darkness. With the damaged stairs, they had to proceed carefully. All the irregular shapes from the metal pipes and electrical wires did indeed give a somewhat sinister look to the tunnel, the flashlight’s light making sharp shadows on the cement walls.

Winona heard Walani grumble next to her. “ You know that time when you have a bad feeling about stuff? Well, I have a bad feeling about this. ”

“ There’s no bad feeling to be had. It’s just a little dark that’s it. ”

“ Yeah but like, why does everything feel so old? ” Walani looked up at the spider webs dangling from the ceiling. “ I thought this factory was pretty new, ” she continued. “ _You gotta admit_. That’s super weird. ”

“Abou’ that, I think the dude Wagstaff had some kind of laboratory here before. And you can pretty much tell with all the junk lying around. ”

Walani suddenly stopped. “ Wait…What?? A laboratory? Oh my god. This is even worst! Why didn’t you tell me this before?? ”

At the same moment, the place echoed with another loud screeching sound coming from inside the walls and she gasped.

“That’s just the machinery, “ said Winona, in an attempt to calm her down. “The friction that makes this kind of noise sometime. Also it’s old. It’s perfectly normal. ”

“I hate this place, ” whispered Walani but she continued walking. “ How can you ever get used to this? ”

“ I guess you get used to everything …”

 

They arrived at one point where a metal column was blocking the way, forcing them to bend over to cross under it. Winona helped Walani, making sure she didn’t hit her head in any way.

“ Darkness is actually the least of your enemies, ” she said, grabbing Walani’s hand to guide her. “ What can hurt you are. Well… It’s what they said when we were working in the mines anyway, ” the words slipped from her mouth.

“ You… worked in the mines? ”

“ Yeah… Three years. ”

“Wow. That’s some shitty job. ”

“ I guess it was, ” responded Winona.

They continued walking in silence. Winona concentrated harder on guiding Walani through the labyrinth of dark corridors, making sure that she stayed close to her. But after a few minutes, Walani suddenly stopped moving.

“ Stop, ” she murmured to Winona. “ Something is following us. ”

“ …What? ”

Walani grabbed Winona by the neck forcing her to lower her head. “ SHHHHHhh. ” Walani looked at Winona directly in the eyes with her finger in front of her lips. “ I’m serious! Can’t you hear it? ”

They kept silent for a few seconds. But Winona couldn’t hear anything. The corridor looked and sounded exactly the same as before.

“ Listen, I think you’re imagining th— ”

“ I’m telling you! Something is here! I heard it! ”

“ That was probably a rat. ” Winona illuminated the path behind them with the flashlight, but it was empty. “ See? It probably just left. ”

Walani still looked unsure. “ I don’t think it was a rat. It was… heavier. ”

“ Well, whatever it was, I assure you we can handle it anyway! Come on, we’re almost there. ”

Winona just wanted to get done with it, but Walani kept dragging her feet, constantly looking behind as they continued walking again.

“ I really don’t feel this, ” the woman said.

“ Try to take some deep breath. Whatever happens, you need to stay calm. Everything is going to be fine.”

They passed near few huge tanks with some with an inscription on it that said: “ liquid helium. Keep pressure regulated or will explode. ”

“ I AM calm. I just feel like this place is trying to _kill_ us. We should leave. ”

“ We can’t leave yet. We need to see what’s going on with the pipe! And watch your steps the floor is oily here for some reason.”

“We should come back, but like with more people.”

“Listen. We’re there anyway. ” Winona lighted the wall with her flashlight. “ Here’s the pipe. We fix it and we can finally lea— ”

The two women immediately froze at what they were seeing.

In front of them, the large pipe had been completely broken. Crushed in the most unnatural way. As if it had been punched by an unstoppable force.

“ No wonder it’s broken… “ Winona couldn’t look away from the damage. “ What the fuck… ”

“ I knew there was something! ” Walani cried out.

“ Walani! Calm down! This— ”

Suddenly, another metallic sound interrupted them. This time, it clearly wasn’t from the pipes at all. Something was moving.

Winona immediately lifted the flashlight again but it was too far and too dark, the only thing they could perceive was some kind of humanoid shape at the end of the corridor.

“Who are you?! ” asked Winona with a firm voice.

They were answered with a big ‘ **CLANK** ’ that resonated loudly as if the shape was breaking something else, followed by the sound of a match being lighted.

“ This is it! ” Walani took a step forward. “ I’m so done with th— ”

Something sparked inside Winona’s mind. She quickly connected the dots about what was going on.

“ Walani! Step out of the oil! ”

Indeed, a little flame lighted up in the dark and fell as the humanoid shape dropped it on the ground. Immediately, a trail of flames lighted up in their direction. Winona had just the time to take a step back, and Walani another step forward, before seeing the puddle of oil burst into flames at the same place that their feet just stood before.

“ WHAT THE FUCK?! ” yelled Walani

The corridor instantly lighted up. Winona looked up to see the thing again at the end of the corridor, but it had already left, giving her only a glimpse of a weird brown feet. She also saw that they had kicked the helium tank they had seen earlier on the floor. And it was making a weird whistling noise.

“ It was a trap! ” said Winona.

“What do we do now?? ” asked Walani to Winona. Tall flames separated them.

Hesitation wasn’t an option. “ I will take care of that fire, but you’re going to need to go look at the helium tank. ”

“ W— What? The helium tank? ”

“Yeah! The one behind you! Quick! We don’t have time to lose! ”

“ O— Okay,” Walani uncertainly walked to the container on the floor.

Thick dark clouds were beginning to darken the ceiling and it was getting harder to breathe. Winona’s mind was blank. She moved with instinct alone. Nothing else mattered anymore. First she had to control this fire before it spread too much or it would be too late. She looked left and right. Multitude water pipes were surrounding her, but it wasn’t an option; pouring water on burning oil wouldn’t extinguish it, only spread it everywhere.

But now that the corridor was lit up by the bright flames, she could now see with a lot more clarity all the junk that was around her. Some old laboratory material that was stored in piles all around. Winona began to vigorously search in the junk, looking for something like a fire blanket or anything that could choke the fire. Laboratories had that kind of stuff sometimes, right?

“ Everything okay Walani? ” she asked to her coworker. “ How’s the tank? Is it fine? ”

“ Uhhhh. Yeah uhh the thing really doesn’t look normal. It’s, like, making a really weird noise. Like a snake?... But like a big snake. And… it’s cold? There’s ice??? Like around the thingy stuff??? Also the thing on top is busted. ”

Winona cursed.

“ Shit. It had to be the pressure controlling valve, of course… ” she grumpily whispered to herself.

“ What do I do???? ” asked Walani.

“ Go to the tool box and take the biggest adjustable wrench you can find. You will also probably need a hacksaw and the torch. You’re gonna need to find a way to relieve the pressure before it explodes. ”

Walani opened her mouth wide.

“ Wait…. WHAT??? Explode??...”

“ Yes, without the pressure regulator, this thing is basically like a bomb, ” patiently explained Winona.

“ A… **BOMB?!?!?!** ”

“ Yes, a bomb. ”

At the same time, Winona moved some tables around and finally found what she was looking for; an old fire extinguisher that was probably expired for a while now, but still usable. Perfect.

Walani terrified voice came to her ears again. “ …holy shit you must be fucking kidding… I’m supposed... to stop that? How much time do we even have left?? ”

“No idea. Could be 10 minutes or 10 seconds. I dunno the science behind this. But GO! Either way, we don’t have much time right now! ” Winona insisted.

Still trapped on the other side of the fire, Winona coughed few times. The smoke was beginning to get on her lungs. She tried to yank the fire extinguisher faster to make it open, but it was stuck.

“ O…okay” responded Walani. She ran to the toolbox but just froze in front of it. “Shit. I…I can’t remember which one is which. ”

“ Remember when you packed them yesterday! Adjustable wrench, hacksaw and torch. You got this! Just try to loosen up the big nut on the valve.” Winona decided to hit a few times the fire extinguisher on the wall to crack it open. She didn’t hear what Walani said next but she heard the sound of tools being tossed on the floor and finally her getting up and going back to the tanks.

The fire extinguisher resisted Winona for a while, but to her great relief, finally yielded after a minute or two. Winona immediately started to spray it on the fire that had no choice in the matter.

Well, that was good. Winona felt a little better. At least they won’t suffocate. That was really good.

“Just try to take the wrench and loosen up the big nut on the valve. It’s easy, it’s exactly like what we did yesterday together. Just pull the wrench toward you. Don’t worry, I’m coming soon! ” she enthusiastically said to the other woman.

But Winona didn’t expect to be met with complete silence.

“ Walani? ” Winona asked again. “You still there?”

“… I can’t. ”

“ What? Is it struck or…? ”

Winona lifted her eyes and saw that Walani was standing in front of the tank, completely petrified with the tools in her hands and with a look of sheer horror on her face.

“ I just… can’t. ”

“ What?” Winona lifted her eyes and saw that Walani was standing in front of the tank, completely petrified with the tools in her hands and with a look of sheer horror on her face.

“I shouldn’t be the one doing it. I’m just gonna break it more if I touch it…”

“Just try to loose it up a little. It’s simple! Just do it.”

“ No, No! You don’t understand! It’s going to explode! AND I’M FREAKING OUT OKAY ! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE AND IT WILL BE MY FAULT! ”

“ Walani! ” cried Winona again but the other woman looked completely out of it. “ Shit, ” she said to herself. The fire was still emanating smoke, but the woman threw the fire extinguished on the side and hurried to Walani’s location.

“ Walani gimme me that wrench, ” said Winona to Walani. “ It’s going to be okay. Try to take a few deep breaths, ” Winona added.

Walani proceeded and gave her the tool with a trembling hand. Winona grabbed it and began to try loosening up the nut that linked the broken pressure regulator with the tank. She was able to turn it for a few centimeters, but it quickly became obvious that it wouldn’t bulge further. The ice that had formed a thin layer around the piece made it tenacious.

“ …W-why is there even ice? ” asked Walani that had recovered some ability to speak.

“ High pressure makes it cold. Apparently. But we need it to melt or this isn’t going to work. Walani, the torch! ”

Walani jumped but gave the torch. Winona turned it on and began to direct the flame on the ice to make it melt with one hand at the same time that she tried to turn the nut again with the other.

The two women held their breath together for the minute that followed. Until Winona was able to loosen up the nut enough and they heard a big ‘PSHHHHHHH’ that indicated the pressure being released. Winona sighed with relief.

“ Is it… Is it… over? asked Walani.

“ Yeah. Not gonna explode. We did it. ” Winona closed the blowtorch and let it roll on the floor.

Walani fell heavily on her knee next to Winona.

“ Thanks god… ” she murmured with her eyes closed.

“ You… okay? ”

“ Yeah… Uh… That just shocked me a little hahaha. ” But it wasn’t her usual rich and honest laugh. This one was forced and pale.

“ Let’s get out of here. ” Winona offered her hand to Walani to help her get up. Walani took it. But turned her gaze as if she was ashamed of something of some sort.

“ Thanks. ”

After making sure the fire was fully extinguished, they walked in complete silence toward the exit. The pipe was still busted and far from functioning, but it wasn’t a priority in Winona’s mind anymore. Getting Walani out was.

“ What did even happen? ” asked Walani when they reached the familiar light again.

“To be honest, I have absolutely no idea, ” responded Winona.

 

She looked back at the dark entrance they just exited. A deep feeling of unease gripped her guts. Winona was used to the dark but this time, the passage behind her felt even darker than the deepest of mines.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly angsty chapter this time, but it will be important after, I swear. But do not worry they go on a date for the next two chapters so get hyped for that!
> 
> Also, on a side note, I did cheat the science a little bit in this for the helium stuff, it’s not supposed to explode that fast. But it’s true that a sealed liquid hydrogen tank does create pressure as the liquid becomes gas and it can eventually explode if the pressure isn’t regulated. So yeah? Sciencee.


	6. The date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walani and Winona get some well deserved rest together. Also, stuff happens.

Winona stood outside the bar. “ Wilbur’s lair, ” it was called. She didn’t know the place at all.

She could see that it was beached-teamed; the elevated deck was already full with people that sat on wooden stools with colorful drinks in their hands. Tacky decorations in forms of palm trees and … banana? were poorly glued on the walls. It made Winona wince a little, but the ambiance was saved with the colorful lanterns that, with the setting sun, made everything shine in a pleasant way.

Winona looked left and right. Walani was late. Or was it her who was too early? Maybe she was already inside? …Was this even the right place?

Winona shook her head. She wasn’t going to let herself worry about things like that. She was supposed to be here to have some fun. Have. Fun. She told Walani she would accompany her here and have a nice time together outside of work for a change.

This was also a perfect occasion to take their mind off what happened a few days ago… They didn’t really have the time to discuss it.

 

A loud group of people passed in front of Winona and entered the bar. One of the women glanced at Winona’s clothes before starting giggling next to her friends.

Winona looked down to her grey jacket and pants from the factory. What? Who had money for clothes anyway?

Winona put her hands in her pockets and looked in the direction of the ocean. The wind gently breezed her hair. How much time had passed since she went out like this? She remembered going dancing with Charlie before. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“ Hey dude. ”

The soft voice caressed her ears. Almost like a song. She turned and was greeted by a radiant smile.

“ Heh, I almost thought you would never show up. ”

Walani chuckled.

“ That’s my line. I _still_ can’t believe that you accepted to come. ”

Walani was dressed with a thin floral patterned blouse and loose cargo pants. Her usual big boots complemented her clothes nicely, making her look summery and comfortable.

“ Well… I… Think it wouldn’t be so bad to do something a little different after… all the crazy stuff. ” Winona hesitated a little, slightly distracted by the clothes.  
Walani grinned at her.

“ Yeah, we don’t need to think about that! Enough spooky stuff! Let’s goo! Let’s make this the best night in our life! ”

“ That might be really big expectations for an evening. ”

“It’s not expectations, it’s ambition! You never know what will happen! ”

Winona couldn’t argue with that. They entered the bar and were immediately greeted with a packed room filled with people and noises. Most of them sat at tables in groups but a lot also just stood in the center, chatting while they waited for their drink. Winona looked around. The type of people there was really different that she was used to seeing near the factory. They felt more like outdoorsy kind.

They were near the beach after all. It was the part of the city that lived mostly with tourism. Well, when it had tourism anyway.

Winona also noticed a group of tough-looking guys with huge cups of beer at one table. They all had similar tattoos and were talking pretty loudly. She was about to ask Walani if she knew them but a man that she never saw before had already moved in front of them.

“ Walani! Woah! We didn’t see you for ages! ” he said.

“Hey Carl! Dude! How are you! ”

“ Who’s that? ” the man stopped looking at Walani and glared at Winona not without some hint of hostility in his eyes.

“ This is Winona. She makes sure I do something at work. ” Walani laughed.

“ From the factory, huh? ”

“ Sup’,” greeted Winona.

His eyes pierced her skull.

“ You’re… tall. ”

“ Huh, Thanks? ” Winona didn’t know what to answer else.

Carl quickly turned toward Walani again.

“ See ya after Walani, I will be outside. I don’t want to bother you. ”

“ Okaaay! Say hi to the others for me! ” responded Walani with enthusiasm.

The man waved one last time before leaving.

“ … I don’t think he likes me, ” said Winona when the man had distanced himself enough.

“ Aww, that’s not true. He’s just a little shy with people he just met. But if you sit down with him with a good drink, he can talk to you about complicated politic stuff for hours. ”

“ I don’t think he was being shy, ” responded Winona as they walked to one of the few tables that were empty.

When she sat on the chair, she noticed that more people were giving her weird looks. As if she wasn’t in a territory she was allowed in.

“ Like I said, you don’t need to worry. Everybody’s suuper pretty chill here. ”

Most of the customers in the bar were wearing really colorful clothing and accessories. She was the only one wearing grey.

“ Am I standing out too much? ”

Walani scrutinized her for a few seconds.

“ Weeell… It’s true that you could have worn something with more colors… But, y’a know, that’s really not the biggest of deal. ”

“ Hm okay. ”

But Winona couldn’t help to feel like she was completely out of place. Walani quickly noticed.

“ Relaaax, everything is fiiine. ” Walani stood up. “ You know what? I’m going to go grab some drinks. Hmm and maybe some nachos! That will help you calm down a little. ”

“But _I am_ calm, ” replied Winona.

Walani laughed.

“ Sure dude,” Walani winked at her. “ I will be right back. ”

Like that, Winona was now alone at the table. Not the most enviable position she could be in. Everybody moved and laughed around her. The noise was almost as loud as the middle of machinery. Ah… machinery. Winona missed her workshop. At least, no one looked at her weirdly in there.

Wait… No. Winona lifted her chin. This wasn’t the good attitude to have. She had all the rights to be in this place and if she didn’t have a place, she would make one! This was the first time she went out for ages and she was with Walani. And she was going to make it _count_.

She removed her jacket revealing her white tank top underneath and tied it around her waist. She opted after for a more relaxed position, not shying anymore to make eye contact with anyone that side-eyed her.

It worked. Most people looked destabilized by Winona’s confidence and turned their head, now only pretending that she didn’t exist at all. Winona smiled. This was better.

However, after some time, she saw that one of the big guys with tattoos had also started to stare at her with cold icy eyes.

Winona crossed her arms and returned his stare.

The guy took a long sip of his beer, his eyes never moving from Winona’s direction.

Oh she knew what this was. This was a battle for dominance. Winona maintained her gaze and they looked at each other for a few minutes.

This had become a staring contest. The first one to look away would lose. Winona smiled again. She was good at those. When she was little, Charlie and her had quite a few against each other.

The guy was getting distracted by his friend at his side that was trying to speak to him. He tried to dismiss him, but looked more annoyed with each passing second and finally turned his head.

Victory! Winona felt really proud of herself. She could finally rest.

It was also a perfect timing because Walani came back with two drinks in her hands.

“ Hey! Sorry! The queue was super long. It took forever. ”

“ Thanks! This is perfect. ”

“ You’re in a good mood. Did I miss something? ”

Winona grinned.

“ Not really. ”

“ You also took off your jacket, ” commented Walani with a surprised voice.

“ Ya, it was beginning to feel a little hot in here. ”

“ That’s… that’s a good look on you, whispered Walani. Winona almost didn’t hear her with all the voices around them. The black-haired woman cleared her throat. “ Man, just look at those muscles! Are you trying to intimidate people? ” she teased.

“ Maybe,” Winona looked down at her drink. It looked milky somehow. “ What is it? ”

“ Oh, this is a ‘dirty banana’. Basically, it’s rhum, Kahlúa, banana and pineapple. It’s good! And I also have a Banana Daiquiri if you want a taste. ”

“ What’s the deal with bananas? ” asked Winona, noticing the prevalence of the fruit in their drinks.

“The owner is _really_ into bananas for some reason. To be honest, it’s better not to ask too many questions about it. ”

“ Okay, ” Winona took a sip of her drink. It was good. She didn’t have rhum for a long time.

“ Sadly, they didn’t have any nachos left. It’s truly a tragedy. ”

Winona chuckled.

“ It truly is. ”

“ Seriously, you really look like you’re in a good mood. Did I really miss something or what? ”

“ You didn’t. But I feel this is going to be a fun night. ”

Winona glanced to the table with the big tattooed guy again. He still looked angry. Walani also turned to see at what Winona looking at.

“ Don’t tell me you pissed those guys off? ”

“ I did nothin'. He looked at me funny, so I looked at him funny too. ”

“ Oh my god, ” laughed Walani. “ I remove everything I ever said about you since the beginning. You’re insane. ”

“Trust me, those kinds of guys are 90% appearance and 10% actual strength, especially, if you compare them with Wolfgang. ”

Walani began to laugh louder.

“ At the same time, nothing can compare with Wolfgang. The dude’s like a truck. ”

Winona took another sip of her drink and felt the pleasant bite of the alcohol in her throat. She was starting to feel like it was worth the money lost.

“ How much do I owe you for the drink by the way? ”

“ It’s free, ” Walani paused. “ If you pay the next ones. ”

“ Deal. ”

As the evening progressed, the place heated up even more as people drank more. Winona and Walani also took few other drinks together. Winona usually liked beer, but it turned out that the fruity drinks weren’t so bad after all. She was feeling more and more relaxed, and began to share her favorite puns to Walani. Walani turned out to be an excellent public for that matter because she laughed at the most terrible of them.

“ What fruit do sheeps like the most? asked Walani.

“ What is it? ”

“ Baaaaa-nanas. ”

“ Ha! You’re learning. ”

“ One day I will surpass the master. ”

“ You wish. ”

Somewhere in the bar some people had started a drinking contest so the place was immediately filled with yelling and clapping.

“ This is getting a little much, wanna hit the deck? ” asked Walani.

It was an excellent idea. She was getting a little tired of the screaming.

“ Yup, let’s go. ”

Walani brought her through a wooden door that led outside. Winona was greeted by the cold air that contrasted nicely with the inside of the bar. Even if the sun had completely set for some time now, the deck was brightly illuminated, the lanterns coloring the floor and people with bright colors of red, green, yellow and purple.

Winona blinked a few times. The lights felt a little psychedelic in her eyes. She wondered if it was because of the alcohol she had ingested or if it was just because she had been too much acclimatized by the white neon of the factory.

They hang out on the deck side for some time, leaning their back on the balustrade chatting and joking, until they noticed few people that were weaving at them, or more precisely at Walani. Winona recognized the man called Carl from earlier and he was next to a woman with piercings, tattoos and a milky complexion, a man with torn clothes that looked really drunk and finally a tall beautiful adventurous-looking woman with big puffy brown hair, darker skin and a confident smile.

“ Oh sorry. I gotta go say hi to them or they will be so mad, ” laughed Walani, “I will be right back, okay? ”

“ You don’t want to join them? ”

“ Well, we can if you want to, but you need to be ready to spend the night drinking and doing stuff like putting fire in trash cans to protest against police brutality. ”

“ That’s pretty specific. ”

“ Yeah, they’re pretty cool. Lil’ bit intense even for me sometimes. But prettyy cool. ”

Winona scoffed.

“ And I thought you were the intense one. ”

“ Heh. I’m more like the chilling on the beach gal. ”

The people at the table waved again.

“I should be back in five, okay? ”

“ Sure, just don’t ditch me or y’a will be in trouble the next day you come to work! ” Winona wanted it to sound like a joke, but I came out way more sincerely that she would have wanted to.

“ Of course not. This is our night after all! ”

As she said that to Winona, she touched her on the arm and Winona felt her body jump at the contact. And like that, Walani quit, and Winona was left with weird feelings in her entrails.

What the fuck. Winona looked at the arm where Walani had touched her. Was she too drunk already?

Nah it wasn’t that much. She had taken alcohol in the past when she went out a lot more. Well, she didn’t usually go to places like this one, but she was pretty used to the experience.

Surprisingly, there was a time in her life that she could always have been found at the pub after work. And when she was always at the heart of the party.

Winona looked in the direction of the table where Walani and the others were discussing. The drunken guy and the woman with the piercings appeared to be mocking her about something and Walani was laughing while making a dismissive hand gesture. The guy named Carl looked as grumpy as he could ever be.

 

Winona turned to look toward the sea. But it was dark. She couldn’t see anything.

She sighed. Why was she feeling so destabilized by everything now? Why did things felt way different? Was it Walani? Or did she change that much? Or both?

Maybe she was getting old? Well, she was barely older than the majority of the people around her, but she did feel like she was getting older way quicker these last years.

 

Tss. This was dumb. _Experienced_ would be a better word actually. And nothing here could possibly be worse than what she experienced before.

Nothing.

 

Winona decided to return inside the bar. Grab a drink, go to the toilet. Anything. She just wanted to keep moving or she felt like she would sink.

She pushed the door and came back inside the narrow, loud and bright room. She entertained the idea to go to the restroom to run cold water on her hands but quickly changed her mind when she saw the queue of people waiting. She wandered near the bar, but didn’t feel like getting more to drink.

With nothing so satisfy her febrility, she didn’t have any choice then decide to good outside again. Maybe Walani had already finished talking with her friends? She began walking again toward the door, but was stopped by a big voice:

“ Hey you! ”

Winona turned her head. It was from the big guy with the tattoos. The one she had that staring contest with earlier. Great.

“ What do _you_ want? ”

“ Don’t play dumb you shithead! You totally disrespected me earlier! And I don’t like at all being disrespected! ” he said with a loud rough voice. It reminded Winona of a dog’s territorial growling.

“ Oh yeah? ” Winona felt her body move on its own toward him and leaned herself on the table with her two hands looking at him directly in the eyes. “ Ya know what? If you want, I can disrespect you even some _more_. Or you can just let me alone and we can all have a nice evening. ”

Winona knew she was looking for troubles this way, but she couldn’t help herself. This was beginning to awake some kind of adrenalin, reminiscent of some parts of her past.

Also, the guy was clearly an asshole. And assholes deserved to get some resistance from time to time. If needed, she also could kick his butt. If needed, of course. Oh, but she was capable. She did kick butts in the past, especially the ones that harassed Charlie.

“ Dumb factory workers… coming here and acting like they own the place,” mumbled the guy.

Winona scoffed. “ Is it that what it’s abou’ ? Ya don’t wanna see the big scary baddies from the factory? ”

Attracted by the drama, people had begun to form a circle around them.

“ The city is shit because of you! Since it arrived everything is fucking closing! Everybody working there is a fucking traitor! ” he spat.

Some people cheered around them.

“ Yeah! Thwe factory suuuckss! ” yelled a guy that visibly had too much to drink.

“ Well, too bad for you, but I gotta pay my rent and my food somehow and anyway _I can go drink where the fuck I want._ ”

Winona turned, ready to leave, but the man abruptly stood up from his chair.

“ Or I can also make you fucking leave too! ”

Oh this guy was trying _way too hard_ to be intimidating. Winona saw him glance at the public, probably in quest in some form of validation. Winona grinned. She had seen these type of guy often in the past.

“Oh yeah? What you gonna do? Team up with your buddies and punch my nose until I crawl out of here? That’s your plan? ”

The man suddenly looked a little confused.

“ Uhh… yes? ”

Winona’s smile became larger.

“ Oh man, you’re _bad_ at this. ”

“ **What?** ”

“ Y’know, the thing is, if you just punch stuff, you’re just gonna be the asshole that punches stuff. ” Winona pointed the exit. “ That’s all you want to be remembered as when you leave this place? The dude that kicked out a random person with all his buddies beside him? Pretty _pathetic_ if you ask me. Kinda feels like ya can do _better_.”

The man kept silent. Nice. That meant that they were going somewhere.

“ You should already know that if you _really_ want to be respected, or even _admired_ , it’s somethin’ you need to earn bud! ” she continued with her fist on the table. “ Like a real fucking man or woman! ”

The pub was now completely silent. As if everybody was holding their breath. The man stood silently in front of Winona. After a moment, he finally spoke.

“ I… CHALLENGE YOU, ” he said with a grunt.

Everybody began to cheer again.

“ _Finally_ , I thought you would never ask, ” said Winona.

“ CHA— LLENGE, CHA— LENGE! ” people began chanting in the bar and hitting the tables and the walls in unison. The chairs and tables moved loudly around them.

Suddenly, a voice elevated itself from the crowd.

“ Winona?... I heard noises and…what the _fuck_ is going on here? ” asked Walani. She was standing at the door, visibly really confused.

“ Oh Walani! “ Winona looked around. “ Uhmm. Arm wrestling competition? ”

“ What? _Why?_ ”

“ I CHALLENGED HER! ”

“ Ohh you’re the dudeee from earlier! ”

  
Winona turned to her opponent again.

“Okay let’s do this quickly, I have other stuff to do, ” she continued, thinking about Walani. “ You know the rules: the elbow stays on the table, no touching your own body or anything else, no slip-out. Let’s do this square for once and for all. ”

“ I don’t need to cheat to fucking _destroy_ you! ”

“ Ha! I like this energy. Keep this up! ”

They put themselves into position.

“ Wait… _You’re really doing this?_ ” Walani had moved forward next to her and still looked pretty shocked.

The crowd around them was hysteric. People placed bet on which person they thought would win. Winona could barely hear them at all. Her mind clouded by the electricity that ran in her entire body.

She felt that the guy was pretty strong after all. This was going to be a challenge. Winona smiled again. Perfect. Easy victories weren’t fun at all.

The guy looked at her menacingly and they waited the countdown that some random people yelled before both beginning the duel in an explosion of pure strength.

 

For few seconds their arms didn’t move. Winona was impressed. He resisted pretty well. He was sweating a lot, though. Winona could see one of his veins become purple on his head.

After some time, he finally understood that he couldn’t win that way and changed his tactic, trying this time to apply the pressure directly on Winona’s fingers.

This was a common tactic used to make the opponent open their hand a little to gain leverage on them. Ha! It would have worked if Winona was inexperienced, but sadly, for him, she wasn’t.

She took this opportunity to take him by surprise by pushing even harder and, in front of his panicked eyes, she forced his hand to come dangerously near his side of the table.

He was in a really critical position. This was only a matter of seconds now. He wouldn’t have any choice to admit defeat and let his arm hit the table. She was pretty confident that the victory was hers already. She waited patiently for him to drain himself of his energy.

Everybody was yelling around her. It was hitting her ears all at once. She was unable to recognize any of the voices.

…But between all the cacophony, something did catch in her ears at some point:

“ …Your girlfriend sure is something Walani. ” It was one of Walani’s friends, the one with the puffy brown hair.

It completely distracted Winona for a second and before she could even process anything, her hand hit the opposite side of the table.

 

She lost.

 

“ YEEAahh! ” yelled the tattooed guy and he lifted his arms with complete euphoria. “ I DID IT, I DID IT! ”

“ Aw shit, ” said Winona. She massaged her red hand and looked down in disappointment. How could she have lost that?

Walani was jumping next to her.

“ HOLY SHIT! ” she yelled.

“ Sorry I blew it. ” Winona didn’t even know why she was apologizing.

“ OH MY GOD. YOU’RE KIDDING. THIS WAS SO. FUCKING. AWESOME. I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE IT! ”

“ … Really? ” Winona lifted her eyes and was surprised to find that Walani was looking at her with complete amazement in her eyes.

“ IT WAS. SO COOL! ”

It made something inside Winona’s stomach twist again. The sight was enough to make all her disappointment fade away instantly.

She stood up. “ HEY BIG GUY! ” She yelled at the one that had challenged her. “ You go lucky this time, but I will be back to kick your ass for real! ”

The dude stopped celebrating with his friends and turned toward her with a big friendly smile on his face this time.

“ Got it! But the next time, the winner buys the drinks! ”

Winona laughed.

“ Wanna get out of here Walani? Some calm wouldn’t be bad right now. ”

“Yes. I know a place we can go, together. ”

Walani grabbed Winona’s hand and dragged her to the exit under the amused smiled of the puffy-haired woman.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a (?) cute short chapter with a cute date and it became… this.  
> Ya uhm, sorry about that.
> 
>  
> 
> also Wheeler knows what's up


	7. Waves

They were walking on some kind of path of some sort. Walani had removed her boots to walk on the sand. It was dark, but the woman didn’t look bothered by it at all. She guided Winona as if she already knew the trail by heart.

“ I still can’t fucking believe any of this, ” she said.

“ How are you still this surprised? ” laughed Winona.

“ You’re fucking hardcore when you want to be, you know that? Like, I leave you alone five seconds and you’re out there challenging huge scary dudes to arm wrestle. ”

“ Heh, I used to do that a lot. ”

“ You did?!? ”

“ Yup. Well, it has been a while since the last time, though. ”

“ And I thought that the only thing you could do was working, ” teased Walani.

“Hey! Rude! ” Winona tried to poke Walani but she had already anticipated it and dodged her easily.

“ Try to get me. ”

“ You’re taking advantage of the fact that I’m drunk and I don’t know the path! ”

“ Of course I am. I’m definitely not going to arm wrestle you. ” Walani laughed.

“ You can’t get good if you don’t practice.”

“ I think I’m just gonna call you each time someone wants to do a match against me. ”

“ Who says I’m going to come? ”

“ I know you will. You can’t resist my natural charm. ”

“ Prffff. Sure. ”

They continued to gently bicker while walking on the path. Winona had no idea what time it was. It could have been midnight or three in the morning, she had completely lost track. They were also walking for some time now; they had completely left the civilization, only hearing some muffled sounds from the city.

“ So…where are we going? ” Winona asked.

“You’ll see, we’re almost there! ”

“ It’s pretty far. ”

“ I can guarantee that it’s totally worth the hike. ”

Indeed, at some point, they did somehow arrive to a clearing. It still had sand on the floor, but few trees and bushes made the place feel more secluded. It wasn’t far from the ocean; they could still hear the sound of the waves.

It was obviously used as a hangout spot. Some logs were messily placed around a big bonfire that had already been lighted by someone. Winona could only them from behind but she recognized those black ponytails almost immediately.

“ Willow! What is she doing here? ”

“ I told her to come. ” Walani looked at Willow with a warm smile. “ I thought she would be happier here. ”

Willow did indeed look happy. She was dancing around the fire as she threw pine branches on it. It was making the fire crackles with joy, releasing several orange sparks into the black sky.

“ Let’s not bother her. ” Walani sat on the sandy floor, using a log as a support for her back. Winona did the same next to her.

For a while, they both just lied there, listening to the sounds around them. The fire, the waves, the sounds of the leaves moving in the wind, the crickets, it all caressed Winona’s ears gently and she gradually felt her body relax. She was a little dizzy from the alcohol, so it felt perfect. She then touched the sand with her hands. It slid on her skin like silk.

The smell of the ocean was also stronger here. Overpowering. Winona closed her eyes. She had missed it.

But, at some point, Walani’s voice suddenly rose from the silence.

“ Hey I’m gonna smoke some weed, do ya want some? ”

Winona opened her eyes again. “ Nah, it’s okay. Ain’t really my thing. ”

“ That’s fine, ” Walani took out a lighter and an already rolled up cigarette and started smoking.

Winona looked at Walani. Since they had arrived, the woman had barely said anything at all. That was… kinda weird to be honest.

“ Hey, you were right. ” Winona said to make conversation. “ This was worth the hike after all. ”

“ Isn’t it? It’s great. With the gang, we used to come here all the time. But since any of us isn’t working at the beach anymore, I guess it just became the place I go to if I want some calm. ”

They were a little far from the fire, but even in the dim light, Winona could see that Walani was looking at the sky with nostalgia.

“ … Do you miss it? ”

Walani chucked nervously. “ Ya of course, ” she answered. “ But you know, gotta keep going, right? ”

At these words, Walani lifted her cigarette to take a long puff of the smoke. But, unlike her, the woman didn’t look calm at all. She looked tense, holding the cigarette with a stiff hand and her eyes lost in the distance with frowned eyebrows.

 

“ … Are you still thinking about what happened last week? At the factory? ” asked Winona.

Walani jumped at the question.

“ …What? Me? Naaah I’m chill man. No problem here. ”

But her voice was shaking.

“ It’s fine y’know. You don’t need to hide it. ”

Walani kept silent. She began rubbing nervously with one hand her golden earing. Winona didn’t remember seeing her do that before.

“ I… panicked, ” she finally said, abruptly letting go of the accessory.

“ Yeah, it happens. ”

“ The thing was about to explode! We could have died! And I just did… nothing. ”

“ We didn’t die. And you did do things. ”

Walani let out a long sigh. She was now fixing the ground this time, completely avoiding Winona’s eyes.

“ Hey, we managed at the end, ” insisted Winona. “ That’s what matter. ”

“ Yeah, but only because of you. ”

“ Walani… ” Winona approached her hand to Walani’s shoulder with the intention to reassure her, but Walani had suddenly turned to face her.

“— Everybody thinks that I’m super chill and confident all the time, but the truth is, one little thing and BOOM I become a fucking mess! And you’re just here, just facing life-threatening situations without even blinking once! Like if it was so fucking easy. ”

Walani paused.

“ Sorry. I’m not mad at you. I’m just salty at myself… ” Walani turned away from Winona again and sat with her arms surrounding her knees. “… I just feel like something is wrong about me sometimes. ”

Silent filled the space between them. Winona looked at the other woman with surprise, but her words did weight inside her. She felt that she somehow understood a little what Walani meant.

Walani sighed again. “ … Just tell me that I’m a wimp or something already. ”

“ No. Not at all. ”

“ …What? ”

“ You aren’t the only one. To feel that way sometimes… ” Winona looked sideways, it was hard to admit.

“ What do you mean? ”

“I used to be brave. Really brave. Feelin’ like nothing could reach me. That I could do anything. From the exterior, it can still look like that. But I dunno. To tell ya the truth, now when I do all this shit, it kinda feels like I’m on autopilot or somethin’. ” It was something that had popped in Winona’s mind a few times before, but it was the first time that she tried to use words to describe it. “ I dunno how to explain it, but it feels like my mind just stop working clearly. ”

Walani looked at her for a few instants. “ Really?... ”

“Yeah, I wasn’t always like that. ” Winona shook her head. “ It began when I was working in mines. I guess it just… kinda fucked up something inside me somehow. But I remember that I was… so terrified. At any time there could be an explosion or if I forgot the look at the fucking bird, I could be dead in a minute. It was a lot. ”

“ Shit. I’m sorry. ”

“ Nah, don’t be. It’s fine. This isn’t about me anyway… ” Winona took a deep breath. “ It’s just…I just wanted to say… That if you tell me that you’re scared, I get it. I really do. And it’s fine. Life is so fucking terrifying. It’s not something you should be ashamed of. Not in front of me anyway. That’s fine to freeze sometimes. I will never judge you for it. And that doesn’ mean you are weak or somethin’. ”

Winona finally put a comforting hand on Walani’s shoulder. It was clumsy, but the woman wished that it at least, communicated all her support.

Lots of emotions went through Walani’s face at the contact. Winona recognized surprise in it, still a bit of sadness, but also relief.

“ Thanks. That’s… really good to know actually, ” said Walani after a moment. She let out a big sigh, “ I guess I don’t like showing that side of me. ”

She sat against the log again and took another puff of her rolled up cigarette.

“ I didn’t work in some fucked up place like the mines or anything… But at home, I was always the big sis. And y’know during difficult times, it always felt like I had to be the one to keep things together with all the… shit that’s been going on. ”

Walani’s gaze lost herself into the emptiness again for a few seconds, but she then suddenly shook her head and turned to Winona with a smile.

“I guess all the pretending that stuff is fine when it isn’t just gets a little heavy at some point. But it does feel good to rely on someone else for a change! ”

“ Yeah! You can always count on me! ” Winona responded. “ Always. We have each other now. Like a team.”

Walani laughed.

“ We’re a team? ”

“ Yeah. A team, ” Winona smiled warmly. She didn’t know if it was the alcohol that made her feel so floaty and peaceful, or the arm-wrestling or the wind that caressed her face, or… Walani. But it didn’t matter at all. She meant each word.

Walani finished smoking her cigarette next to her in silence again, but this time, she looked way more serene than before. Winona was so happy to see her smile again. After some time, she began telling Winona stories about her and her friends when they hang out at that place. She told about how her friend had thrown a bottle of some sort of anti-mosquito spray in the fire and how it hadn’t been his most brilliant idea and Winona laughed.

Time passed and the night advanced even more. At some point, Walani came even closer to Winona and whispered in her ear with a malicious smile:

“ Hey… The night isn’t over. I still have more to drink if you want.”

Winona lifted an eyebrow. “ Is this… A good idea? ”

Walani shrugged, “ Who knows? I don’t know for you but I can take more,” she added with a grin.

Winona also knew that she hadn’t totally reached her limit yet, but what about going back home after? At the same time, it’s wasn’t really like she wanted to leave.

“ Ahh, well. It’s been a crazy night, no need to stop that now. ”

“ Yeahh! That’s the right attitude!” Walani immediately took some bottle of beer from her pants that apparently had really big pockets.

“ HEY WILLOW YOU TELL US IF YOU WANT A DRINK, OKAY? ” she yelled to the other woman that was still taking care of the fire.

“ Kay’ ” Willow responded, but she didn’t look interested in anything other than the orange flames.

“ You really planned everything, didn’t you? ” said Winona to Walani as she opened her beer.

Walani opened her beer with her teeth and spat the cap on her pants. “ Of course. Now cheers! ”

They continued to drink and talk. Soon, everything was beginning to feel even dizzier around Winona and their conversations become less and less focused. Random sentences just blurted from their mouths now.

 

 

Winona was now completely lying on the sandy floor. Walani was next to her.

“ Hey, hey, hey Winona. U know what? ” Walani’s head was close to hers and she had the biggest and stupidest grin on her face.

“ What now? ” Winona’s brain didn’t feel like it could process anything. She had given up all tentative to intellectual reasoning for a while now.

“ Ur cute. ”

“ Cute? Me? ” Winona couldn’t contain a chuckle.

Walani arched an eyebrow“ U don’t like being called cuute? ”

“ I just expected more something more like… strong and capable maybe. ”

“ Well, that too, ” said Walani really seriously. “ You can also throw gorgeous and sexy and smart in there. ”

“ … ”

Winona’s heart began to beat faster, but in her state right now, her brain was just foggy and everything felt surreal. The reality of Walani’s face so close to hers was also distracting.

She took the time to really look at Walani this time. She looked at her eyes, the ones that always made her feel an unexpected a mix of emotions that went from frustration, nervousness, to something like joy and happiness, sometimes all in the same minute. But also her dark eyebrows… her mouth that often curled to mock her, the way her hair fell sideways on her forehead, the imperfect knots she had made with each red ribbon to keep her hair in place on each side of her head.

All those features were somehow unsymmetrical, deliberately imperfect, rough even. But on Walani’s face it all worked perfectly. Winona realized that she was fond of it. All of it.

“ You too, ” she finally whispered.

“ What? ”

“ You’re… something. ” No word in Winona’s mind could ever be able to express exactly what she wanted to say at that moment.

“ Duude! Are you saying that I’m not cute? ” Walani laughed.

“ No. No! You’re…. definitely cute ” Winona’s felt the heat reach her face and the chaos and panic invading her mind. “ But also… Way more than that… Like a fucking tsunami. ” Winona whispered the last part. And got immediately really nervous that she had just said something completely stupid.

Walani opened her eyes wide. Winona immediately mentally cursed herself, her guts and her weakened capacities.

“ Woah, ” finally said Walani. ” No one said that I was like a tsunami before… I kinda dig that. “ Walani turned to face the sky. “ I looove waves! ” she cried enthusiastically, her arms towards the sky.

“ …Waves? ”

“ Yeah, they’re great! You know that you never fight a wave? You just let it carry you around…” Walani yawned loudly. “I miss surfing sooo much. I would give anything to do it again. ” She closed her eye and smiled like she was imagining some pleasant scene in her mind.

“ … surfing, eh? ‘Never tried anythin’ like that, ” Winona admitted.

Walani turned and rested her face on Winona’s shoulder, using it as a pillow.

“ Maybe… You’ll want to come… with me, ” muttered Walani with her eyes still closed.

Winona’s heart was now pounding on her chest. She had always… hated taking some time off but right now the mere thought to have free time with Walani was extremely… appealing.

She stared at Walani’s head. Next to the colder temperature of the night, it was warm. Walani snuggled into her shoulder, and Winona desperately tried looking at the sky to distract herself to the profound fighting in her hazy mind.

 

The stars shined brightly that night. It was somewhat blurry in Winona’s vision, but still had the same mysterious charm.

“ …Walani? ” Winona asked after a few minutes after she had gathered all the courage she could inside her.

No answer. Winona looked down. Walani was sleeping peacefully. Her chest moving up and down in a regular motion.

Winona’s mouth curled into a soft smile.

 

“ I would love to, ” she gently whispered.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little disclaimer because I know younger people could be reading this : mixing alcohol and weed is not usually a good idea if you aren’t experimented in those fields. Consider Walani a trained professional here and that she knows exactly what she’s doing. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	8. Cloudy Morning

Winona woke up on her couch, fully clothed, her red bandanna still tied on her head and with the feeling that her skull had been split in half. Hangover headache. She definitely hadn’t missed those. Winona staggered to her kitchen and served herself the fullest glass of water she could and chugged it all in one go.

After cursing at all her life decisions, Winona put down the empty glass and looked at the small round clock on the wall. It was already the middle of the day, way too late to even consider going to the factory anymore; Wickerbottom wouldn’t be there to open the door, the older woman usually only stayed for the morning before leaving to work at the bookstore she owned for the rest of the day.

Of course, it was Sunday, technically, Winona’s day off. But the woman didn’t believe in day off. Not anymore. For this reason, she couldn’t help to feel a little twinge of guilt inside her.

 

But not today. Winona rolled up her sleeves. Today was recovery time. She would deal with all the work later.

Instead, Winona spent the afternoon cleaning her apartment that had become way dustier than she recalled and fixing some broken planks on the floor of her small home. She even finally repaired the old toaster that had stopped working a few months before and patched up with a good amount of duct tape the ceiling fan that had been threatening to fall on her head each time she was in the kitchen. The tasks helped her focus a little but she still felt sluggish when the evening came.

Winona went to bed early, happy to get into her own this time. She fell asleep almost immediately, her body longing for some well-deserved rest.

 

 

 

 

She emerged again, a lot of hours later, feeling like she had woken up from a deep, deep, sleep. She stayed for a moment, eyes closed in her bed sheets, enjoying, for once, the warmth and limited comfort that the bed provided. She almost fell peacefully back asleep while listening to the soothing sounds of the birds that perched on the washing lines outside.

Wait… Birds?

Winona jumped out of her bed as if she had been hit by lightning.

Oh no! Was the sun already rising?! She was going to be late!

Winona slammed clothes on her body and took few pieces of bread before storming out of the large building that contained her home.

That morning, large clouds covered the sky and the air smelled dense. Winona walked with a good pace on the quiet street. After one whole day inside, she graciously welcomed the chill on her skin. And even with her lateness, she found herself in a good mood. She ignored the missing posters on the wall as she hummed a song while walking.

Winona couldn’t wait to get to the factory. But this time the reason was maybe a little different than usual.

All her wishes were immediately granted when she turned the corner of the next street and saw the back of a head she recognized pretty well now. Black hair with two messy buns on each side. Winona humming’s suddenly stuck in her throat.

“ Walani! ” she cried out with enthusiasm.

The woman in front of her turned her head. And her face immediately lighted up too when she recognized Winona.

“ Winona! Dude! What are you doing here?? You aren’t at the factory yet? ” Walani was back into the factory grey uniform. It threw Winona off for a moment, remembering all the colorful color she had worn last time, but everything else was perfect. Like always.

With both her hands in her pockets, Walani was also looking at Winona from head to toes. “ Man, what happened to your clothes? ” she laughed. “ Someone definitely didn’t eat her pancakes this morning! ”

“ — What? ” Winona looked down at herself. She realized that she had indeed put her shirt inside out. “ Oh. I woke up a little late… I will change later, ” she responded, a little quickly. “And what about you? You’re… early today. ”

Since Walani had started working, Winona had never seen her arrive earlier than she had to. On the contrary it always seemed like she waited until the last possible second before setting foot in the workplace. To be honest, it was almost a miracle that she showed up each day.

“ I guess I am! ” Walani gave Winona the most radiant smile she had ever seen.

It immensely distracted Winona again. “Uh…” she said while awkwardly rubbed the back of her own head with her hand.

She had been in such a hurry to see Walani, but now that she was standing in front of her, Winona didn’t know what to say anymore. It was the first time they saw each other since the day they went out together and she was still not exactly sure of what did really happen exactly or what had just been her imagination, or even a dream. She was still trying to figure that out when Walani started talking again.

“ … Hey, ” Walani looked completely unfazed by the whole situation. She took her hands out of her pockets and blew on them, to warm them a little against the cold. “ By the way, thanks for walking me home the other day. But man! I felt a little bad after. You looked sooo tired. ”

She did? Winona searched in her memories. Oh yeah. That’s something that could have happened. Maybe. She somewhat remembered them waking up just a little bit before dawn and walking to some of Walani other friend’s house. She also remembered Walani asking if Winona wanted to sleep there too, but Winona had politely declined, longing to find the comfort of her own bed and not one of some stranger’s house.

“ I’m fine now, ” Winona suddenly realized that they were standing on the street without moving for a while now. “Anyway! We gotta go… Right? Or we’re going to be late and we have lotta things to do at the factory today! ”

The effect was immediate, Walani’s face quickly twisted with clear displeasure. “ Ughh. Shit. I forgot about that… ” she mumbled but she still reluctantly followed Winona. “ I thought we did everything last week already! ”

“ New week, new stuff to do! ” responded Winona. “ That’s how it is. Also, this week is gonna be a big one too. I slept too much yesterday, so I didn’t have time to get anythin’ done in advance.”

Walani lifted an eyebrow. “ What?...Yesterday? Wasn’t that our day off? ” she said with clear confusion.

“ Well. Yeah. But the factory is still open. ”

“ Wait. You’re telling me that you come on Sundays too? ”

“ Yeah! It’s the best day to get a lot of stuff done! ”

Walani blinked a few times at Winona and suddenly burst out laughing.

“ _No way!_ ” she giggled. “ You’re messing with me again! ” She threw a friendly punch on Winona’s shoulder. “ Stop looking so serious when you say stuff like that. I almost fell for it! ”

Winona didn’t really know what to respond. Walani abruptly stopped laughing.

“ Oh shit. You’re being serious, ” she said.

“ Of course I am! ”

Walani now looked horrified. “Dude! Seriously?? But why would you even do that?? You aren’t even _paid!_ ”

Winona shrugged. “ It makes the weeks easier. That’s all, ” she smiled proudly at Walani. “ That way, I can start the week on the right foot and get everything done in time! ”

“ Yeah. Okay. Wow, ” Walani shook her head in disbelief. “ Yeah. I _really_ don’t get it. ”  
She then glanced pensively at the sky that was still grey from the early morning. “ Man they really don’t deserve you… Don’t they? ” she whispered.

“ What? ”

But Walani’s eyes were now captivated by space above her head. “ You know what? ” she finally said, “ This night, I had this dream that I was on some kind of deserted island with nothing else than my surfboard. No houses, or buildings, or machines. No civilization at all. Nothing. ”

“ Wow. That’s… terrible? ” Winona responded, unsure.

Walani abruptly turned back to Winona. “ You mean awe-some! ” She lifted her arms in the air, “Dude, it was, like, the _best_. It was sunny and hot and I could just sleep all day! Like a big permanent vacation! ”

“ A big vacation? ” Winona was still a little confused by the change of subject. “ If you were on a deserted island, don’t ya need to find something to eat? Or somethin’ ? ”

“ Dude! That’s not the point! ”

“ That’s not really realistic. ”

“ Who cares? Don’t you sometimes feel like you would rather just be _free_? No job. No responsibilities. No planning. No one who wants stuff from you. Just lying down, doing nothing for days and days? ”

Winona chuckled. “ Yeah. No offense, but I would hate that. ”

“ Well, that’s because you’re super weird! ” Walani playfully nudged Winona on the side.

“ What?! I’m not! ”

“ Yeah you are! Okay. Let’s see. Let’s say you are stuck on an island. And you know that someone is going to come rescue you, but you also know that it will take a few days and you have to wait for them. What would be the first thing you do? ”

“ Hmm, ” Winona thought for an instant. “I would make a boat. ”

“ _A boat!?_ But I said that someone is going to rescue you anyway! ”

“ Yeah, but I just think they’re neat, ” Winona smiled into the distance. “ I always wanted to make a boat. ”

Walani looked even more discouraged now. “ Oh my god. ”

“ Ha! Don’t worry! I will make it big enough for two! ”

It cracked a smile on Walani’s face again. And Winona felt really proud about that for some reason.

 

 

As both women continued talking and walking through the waking city together, Winona found herself enjoying each second. Not once she thought about the work that awaited her or the fact that she was somewhat late. It was as if she had never left the beach in the first place. Not even the gloomy looks of the first workers leaving their house to go to work flattered her mood.

As the sun finished rising in the horizon, Winona realized how lovely the morning was. Even if it was cloudy, it had this distinctive light to that illuminated the buildings and Walani’s hair in a somewhat different way than usual. It definitely had its charm. Also, it was quieter. But in a nice way. Unlike when they worked in the loud workshop, here she could hear each intonation in Walani’s voice. It was really… pleasant.

 

And as Walani still jokingly tried to convince Winona that escaping to a deserted island would obviously be the best course of action, for an instant, Winona wished that the morning would never end.

 

But her thoughts were abruptly interrupted when the two women turned another corner and, suddenly, the factory stood there, in front of them, with its tall brick walls, the metal fences and the numerous long smoking chimneys on the roof that clouded that part of the sky in a somewhat menacing manner.

“ Aw shit. We’re there already? ” said Walani lifting her eyes in the direction of the enormous edifice.

“ I guess so… ” Winona responded. Now completely back to reality, she contemplated the building that had become such a big part of the city and her life at the same time.

…Did it always have that intimidating aura to it like that or had something changed since the last time she came? Winona wasn’t really certain.

“ Next time we walk slower. Okay? No one else in even there yet. ” True to herself, Walani yawned loudly next to her.

Winona suddenly remembered something. “ Actually, I wanted to talk to Wickerbottom this morning. ”

“ Wickerbottom? ” Walani finished yawning. “ Why? ”

“ I wanted to ask her if she knew something about what happened to us last time. When we went to the first basement floor, ” responded Winona.

“ Oh, ” Walani suddenly looked less tired. “ Oh yeah! That was creepy. But… Why talk to her about it? I’m no expert or anything, but can she really do anything about it? ”

“ I dunno, ” Winona admitted. “ But she did tell me to be careful abou’ somethin’ a while ago and I have been wonderin’ since if that was what she was talking about. ”

Walani had almost gotten hurt after all. Winona clenched her fists together. She didn’t want to ever risk something like that again. If Wickerbottom knew something she had to know.

“ Damn. Yeah. Okay. I guess we just gotta ask her then, ” said Walani as they finally reached the rusty factory door that immediately imposed its massive presence in front of the two women.

“ Yeah,” Winona glanced at the giant door and then moved forward to give it two solid knocks like always.

 

It echoed loudly in the emptiness.

 

As they both waited in silence in front of the entrance, Winona noticed that, for some reason, a hint of cold nervousness had crept inside her. It was a similar sensation to the one she had sometimes when she did some kind of dangerous manipulation with a completely new machine. Of course, it was pretty manageable, but Winona was still happy that, this time, Walani was at her side for it.

 

“ Well, she’s sure taking her time today, ” said Walani that had put her hands back in her pockets again.

Winona frowned a bit. Walani’s was right. Wickerbottom was taking a lot of time today. Usually the older woman opened the door almost immediately.

“ Maybe she didn’t hear… ” Winona came forward with the intention to knock again, but the door then suddenly opened with a big ‘BANG’ , narrowly missing her by a centimeter. Winona instinctively jumped away and the noise surprised Walani too that squealed a little as she took a step back.

When the two women lifted their eyes, they both quickly realized that, the person that had opened the door… wasn’t Wickerbottom at all.

 

Instead, a woman with flamboyant thick red hair that she kept in thick braids in each side of her head stood in the way.

 

“ You shall nöt pass! ” she declared fiercely.

 

 

***

 

 

“ You really don’t know where Wickerbottom is? ”asked Winona for the third time.

“ I have already töld yöu: I dö nöt knöw the löcation of the fierce maiden yöu are talking aböut.”

“ But Wickerbottom had _never_ been absent ever. It must be a mistake, ” Winona insisted.

The woman with the red hair crossed her hands with her back pressed on what was previously Wickerbottom’s desk, now unnaturally empty, only with weird helmets on it that Winona hadn’t ever seen before. They looked like some kind of weird cheap costume pieces you would find somewhere like a theater.

“ I have already töld yöu, they önly said that they needed a new döör guardian för an unknöwn periöd öf time. And I have decided tö hönör this nöble request. That is all, ” she vividly pointed the desk. “ I even had tö clean up all her stuff myself! ”

“ But… They must have told you something else. ” Winona felt her hands tightened on the border of the table. “Anything! ”

“ Are yöu challenging my wörds? ” The woman came closer to Winona, beginning to look a little irritated. “ I warn yöu, my patience is gröwing thin and I will defend my honör and this dömain with all my will! ” The red-haired declared proudly in front of her.

Winona felt something on her wrist. Walani had grabbed it.

“ Hey, let’s go Winona. I don’t think she know anything…” Walani began to pull her toward the exit. “ Come on. Just let it go for now. ”

Winona compliantly let herself be dragged to the next corridor. She blinked twice at the sight of the familiar neon lights on the ceiling that blinded her.

“ She just quit, like that? ” Winona just couldn’t believe it.

“ Okay, okay hey, let’s chill for a moment here, ” Winona felt Walani’s touch on her shoulder. “ Maybe she just decided to retire? She’s kinda old after all. ”

“ We’re talking about Wickerbottom here! ” Winona responded. “ She would have noticed us months in advance. She does it every time she needs to take a day off. Even if she was sick or had some kind of accident, she would also have warned us someway! That’s just how she is! ”

“ Yeah okay. Okay. I get it. Valid point, ” conceded Walani. “ But what do you think happened then? ”

“ I don’t know, ” Winona groaned in frustration. “ I just think it’s… weird. ”

Winona was worried. A lot more worried that she would have liked to be. She was only realizing it now, but Wickerbottom had always been a constant presence in her life, something that always helped her feel grounded. Her being gone like that was just… destabilizing. Like losing something really important she hadn’t even realized she had before.

“ … Do you think that she’s part of the people that gets fired and never come back? ” Walani asked with a softer voice. “ It wouldn’t be the first time. ”

Winona stiffened.

“ That’s impossible. She’s the best employee in this building! And Wigfrid said her stuff was still there when she came. ”

Walani hesitated a little. “What if, ” she fixed Winona with full rare seriousness, “ They fired her because she knew something she wasn’t supposed to? ”

“ About what? ”

“ Duh _,_ what do you think?” Walani gesticulated around her. “ _This place._ ”

Winona got lost in her thoughts for a moment. But her brain felt hard to use.

“ No. That’s stupid. ”

“ How is that stupid?? You said yourself that something weird was going on! ”

“Not ‘bout the factory! It must be something else. About her personal life or somethin’! ”

_It must be._

Walani approached her face closer to Winona’s like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“ Dude. What’s wrong with you? Like, seriously this time. It’s kinda fucking obvious at this point, ” Winona could see exasperation in Walani’s face. “ This place is being super shady from the beginning. I really don’t understand with you keep defending it. ”

“ I’m not defending anything! ”

“ Yes, you are! You’re _always_ are. Since the beginning. Always saying stuff like _‘ It’s normal.’_ Or ‘ _It just works like that.’_ All the time! Seriously! You need to snap out of it already! ” Walani sighed with more frustration than anger. “ Are you even listening to what you are saying? ”

“ Of course I am! ”

“ So why are you acting like everything is okay?! ” Walani raised her voice. “  
I just don’t get it! Why is everybody here always acting like everything is okay!? Like, _what the hell is wrong with all of you!?_ ”

The question petrified Winona for an instant. She had never seen Walani speak in so much earnest before. She hesitated in front of those green that were fixing her.

“ I— ” she started.

 

 

 

 

“ **_Ladies_.** Can I know what are you doing, chatting on the corridor **like some dumb teenagers?** ” suddenly interrupted a loud menacing voice directly behind them.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter finally got released from editing hell yay!  
> Also the plot is moving?? Woah. That's insane.


	9. Getting Into Troubles

At the sound of the loud voice that interrupted them, the two women jumped. As they turned around, they quickly realized that one long shadow was standing directly behind them, blocking the light from the white neon lamps.

Tall, with a lot of dark curly hair and huge glasses that made her eyes look so much bigger, Winona recognized her immediately. It was one of the factory’s main forewomen. The one she had often seen wandering in the corridor before, a note pad in her hands, hunting for something, she assumed, was bad behavior to correct.

Winona froze. Until now, she had been successful at carefully avoiding crossing her path. She had those eyes that always looked like they tried to reach to the deepest part of her soul, and that always managed to make, even Winona, feel a little uncomfortable.

She had heard the rumors, of course. But like a lot of things that she heard in the factory, she didn’t know what was really true or what was merely an exaggeration, and in front of the forewoman that severely stared directly at them, not looking in the most splendid of mood, she didn’t particularly wish to find out either.

How much time had she been standing behind them? Had she heard their conversation? Winona couldn’t help to ask herself those questions.

Next to Winona, Walani had also stopped moving. They both held their breath as the forewoman furrowed her brows further.

“Well? … Are you going to answer me, or do I need to talk **slower**?” she said, looking a little perplexed.

It made Winona come back to reality.

“Err… Yes! Of course! Sorry about that ma’am!” she promptly responded. “It’s nothing. We will be going to our station now,” She instinctively started to tug Walani’s sleeve toward her. “Right Walani?”

Walani still looked a little upset from earlier, but under the supervisor’s very suspicious and hostile glare, she nodded compliantly. “Yeah!” she said, a little louder than her usual voice. “Man, you’re so right, we _really_ need to get going! We have so many, uhh, very, very serious work stuff to do.”

The forewoman squinted her eyes, but to Winona’s relief, the she didn’t make any gesture to stop them as they started walking away as fast as possible. However, Winona could still feel her skeptical and piercing glare on their backs.

Anyway, it’s not like they were doing anything bad. Right? The work hours hadn’t even started yet. Yep. It should be fine. Absolutely no reason to be worried.

“ … **Wait**. _Not so fast, girls_ ,” the forewoman voice suddenly resonated loudly in the corridor again. “Come back here. Both of you.”

The two women stopped moving. Walani gave Winona an interrogative look that Winona didn’t know how to respond to.

“Come on. Faster than that,” continued the forewoman, sounding increasingly more annoyed with each passing second. “I don’t have all morning.”

Walani and Winona quickly walked back to the forewoman that replaced her glasses on her nose.

“Names,” she ordered them with a menacing tone.

“Winona. Ma’am.”

“Uh, Name’s Walani,” said Walani. “ … Sup’?” she said with an uncertain smile.

The older woman’s mouth was in a state of permanent looking disgust. Somehow it twisted even more when she glanced at Walani.

“Well, I definitely don’t recognize those faces from my assembly lines,” she coldly commented, with her dark eyes still scrutinizing Walani. “OLGA!” she shouted, instantly making the two other women jump again. “DO YOU KNOW A _WINONA_ AND A _WALANI_?”

Another woman came from behind again. Another forewoman. Winona also recognized her. This time it was the smaller one with that overwhelming puffy orange hair. She was the one mostly in charge of the discipline among the workers and if the first forewoman had never been seen smiling before, this one’s had one that had the power to make everybody around her instantly uncomfortable.

She grinned at them. “Oh yea. I know ’em. They’re from the repair ce’nter. Section C, I think.” She responded somewhat roughly. “We just hired that one a few weeks ago!” she pointed at Walani.

The first forewoman’s eyes suddenly lighted up. “Oh, _those ones_!” she came closer to them, approaching her face to theirs. Walani took instinctively a step back. “That’s perfect. I actually wanted to speak to you two.”

Winona was starting to dislike where all this was going. Usually, in her personal experience, when the foreman wanted to speak to you, it was rarely good news. But Winona forced herself to remain calm. This wasn’t the time the fuck things up.

“Speak to us? Why? Do ya need somethin’ ?” Winona tried to sound as detached as she possibly could. “Just ask and we’ll go take care of it as fast as possi—”

“Come with me. **Now**.” The forewoman turned around and immediately started walking away.

Winona and Walani exchanged another puzzled look again but had no other choice than follow the woman in silence.

They went through several long corridors and empty stairs. They entered a section of the factory that was way emptier than the other ones and that Winona never went before. Therefore, very quickly, she didn’t have a single idea of where they were in the factory anymore.

The supervisor was walking fast. Winona almost had troubles following her. Walani was almost forced to run. At some point she came closer to Winona.

“Hey,” she whispered to her. “Are we in trouble? I feel like we’re in trouble.”

“I don’t know why we would be,” Winona whispered back.

“Maybe she heard us talking?”

“ ’Didn’t look so,” Winona shrugged.

“Shit! That’s probably because of me then…” Walani mumbled to herself. “They probably noticed that have been stealing all that food with Warly! She’s probably super angry about that. I hope he won’t be in trouble because of me…”

“We don’t know that yet! ’Could also be nothing. Some weird administrative stuff. Or somethin’ like that.”

Walani looked at her but didn’t look convinced at all.

“ … just let me handle it, okay?” continued Winona. “I got this. Don’t worry.”

Walani still looked unsure but at that point, the supervisor glanced back at them with a piercing look and two women immediately stopped talking.

They continued following the older woman in silence into more unknown empty corridors for several more minutes and after turning a few more corners, the forewoman finally stopped in front of a small door that was almost invisible because of how much it blended with the grey and depressing colors of the walls around it.

The woman searched in her pockets and took out a big and heavy-looking set of keys and loudly unlocked the door.

“Inside,” she ordered to them. Winona and Walani took a step into the room and the supervisor immediately closed the door behind them.

 

Almost anticlimactically, the room in front of them was small and near empty with only a desk, a few chairs and tall file cabinets that almost reached the ceiling. The walls were almost completely bare, with only a clock that ticked loudly in the emptiness. A unique lamp also hung from the ceiling above the desk, leaving a good part of the room in the darkness.

Winona was no expert in interior decorating or anything, but she suspected that the place would probably fit in the ‘not made to be particularly charming’ category if there was one.

“Sit,” the supervisor said, pointing to the two chairs in front of the desk.

Walani and Winona compliantly sat on the two hard chairs. It was unsurprisingly as uncomfortable as the grey benches in the canteen. At least that felt familiar.

The supervisor walked directly to the one of the file cabinet and opened a few of the drawers to search vigorously in them, tossing few stacks of papers around. After a moment, she finally found what she was looking for. She took out a dense file and sat down on the chair on the other side of the desk and started flipping the pages in silence.

After some time, the forewoman still hadn’t spoken a word to the two women in front of her, still reading the file attentively as if they didn’t even exist at all. Winona looked at the clock on the wall. The work hours had now already started ten minutes ago.

She was seriously beginning to consider saying something when the forewoman finally spoke again.

“That was I thought,” she said, her eyes still on the document she was holding. “Winona, we have been noticing a drop in productivity from your station for a while now. I hope you have a good explanation for this.”

Winona blinked. Among all the things that the supervisor could have said, this was probably one of the last that she had expected her to say. “Wait… What?” she asked.

“Really?” Walani sounded as surprised as Winona.

“Yes _really_ ,” responded the forewoman with a sharp tone. She took out a page from the file and slid it directly in front of Winona. “The numbers are crystal clear. In the past weeks, your work has been found lacking in comparison with your usual performances,” she said directly to her. “Even with the new employee we assigned to your unit, it hadn’t been delivering nearly as much as you should.” The forewoman pointed a long finger directly on the paper. “ _I don’t think I have to remind you that we don’t tolerate this kind of laziness in this establishment._ ”

Winona looked down at the sheet of paper. It was full of numbers, tables and words, that she hadn’t the slightest idea of the meaning. She pushed the paper away and shook her head.

“This has to be a mistake,” she said. “I made sure that we did everything we were asked to do. Are ya sure that— ”

“There’s no mistake.” The forewoman interrupted her.

“But—”

“When we asked you to repair the piping system last week, it didn’t mean _make a mess in a basement and leave everything there_ ,” the forewoman eyes faintly glinted with anger. “Did you _really_ think that we wouldn’t notice? How did you ever think this was ever acceptable!?”

Winona froze. Oh yeah. She had forgotten about that. She opened her mouth again, but it was Walani who spoke first.

“That wasn’t Winona’s fault at all!” the woman exclaimed. “She did everything she was supposed to. It happened because—”

“I don’t think you understand,” drily cut the forewoman, she gave a quick dark look to Walani before pointing a long finger directly at Winona. “I absolutely do **not** care about _why_ or _how_ it happened. The only thing I know is that this unit is not meeting the standard requirements that it should be. And in a prestigious establishment like Wagstaff’s factory this is not a behavior I can _accept_!” The forewoman’s angry voice echoed in the empty room in a rather unpleasant way.

Both Winona and Walani stayed silent. Neither of them dared to say another word.

The forewoman brought her hand to her head and let out a long sigh.

“You know, I _really_ would hate to get rid of some quality worker, good and obedient ones are so rare these days,” the forewoman glanced briefly at Walani again before laying her eyes on Winona again. “But if you can’t at least get the job done, you won’t give me any other choice to replace you with someone that will,” she said directly to her.

The room suddenly felt way colder around Winona. She looked at the forewoman in front of her, but the woman didn’t look like she was kidding at all. She opened her mouth to say something, but it was Walani that stood up from her chair.

“Okay. This is it.” The clear anger in her voice surprised Winona. “I’m sorry, but this is so fucking unfa—”

Winona just had the time to grab Walani’s arm before she commits the irreparable. “Sorry Ma’am, this one is 100% on me,” she quickly said, covering Walani’s voice.

Surprised, Walani turned to her with wide eyes.

“I won’t disappoint you again,” Winona squeezed Walani’s arm just a little, praying with all her being that she would enough to make her understand that getting herself getting fired right now would serve no purpose.

Walani hesitated a little, but to Winona relief, it looked like she understood, because she sat grumpily on her own chair again.

The forewoman narrowed her eyes and observed them for a few more instants with her usual piercing glare, but finally closed the file in a resigned way. “This your **first** and **only** warning,” she said. “But I’m warning you, if I see you getting too distracted again,” the older woman lowered her voice, letting her seriousness invade each part of her speech. “I can guarantee you that a dozen other workers would be delighted to take your place, tomorrow even, if needed. _Is it understood?_ ”

“Yes Ma’am,” said Winona.

“… Sure,” Walani responded after a small pause.

“You can go now. I have lost enough time with you this morning.” The forewoman dismissed them before continuing searching in the file cabinets again.

Winona and Walani didn’t wait to be asked a second time. They both stood up quickly and walked to the door.

 

To be honest, Winona couldn’t wait to see the familiar light of the corridor again she opened the door for Walani and they were about to leave, but the forewoman stopped them one last time.

 

“Oh. I almost forgot... One last thing before you go girls.”

Winona and Walani turned one last time toward the tall figure at the other side of the desk.

“Wickerbottom had been found accessing some private information she shouldn’t have access to,” she said nonchalantly. “In the light of those clear violations of our policies she had obviously been relieved immediately of all of her functions.” The forewoman gave them both a last icy stare. “In the future I would strongly recommend you not to put your noses where it doesn’t belong. It had been found that it usually impacts productiveness in _rather_ negative way. _If you understand what I mean._ ”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a while but I was finally happy with this chapter.  
> Thank you for still reading even with the long posting!
> 
> Oh also, the forewomen are based on those very nice women in Willow's short if some people were wondering


End file.
